FTC investigates Big Tech user bans

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a public inquiry to understand technology platforms’ content policies and user bans to determine if it leads to censorship.

The update came on Thursday (February 20) with the full scope including determining “how technology platforms deny or degrade users’ access to services based on the content of their speech or affiliations.”

This topic has become a highly contentious one over the last couple of years, with even the President being banned from platforms in the past.

Within the press release, the FTC writes that not only is censorship by technology platforms un-American, but potentially illegal too.

“Tech firms can employ confusing or unpredictable internal procedures that cut users off, sometimes with no ability appeal the decision.

“Such actions taken by tech platforms may harm consumers, affect competition, may have resulted from a lack of competition, or may have been the product of anti-competitive conduct.”

The deep dive into how this is currently being handled has started with the FTC issuing a Request for Information to gain a public comment on how people ‘may have been harmed by technology platforms that limited their ability to share ideas or affiliations freely and openly.’

“Tech firms should not be bullying their users,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson in the press release.

“This inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”

Big Tech censorship is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal. The FTC wants your help to investigate these potential violations of the law. We are asking for public submissions from anyone who has been a victim of tech censorship (banning, demonetization, shadow…

— Andrew Ferguson (@AFergusonFTC) February 20, 2025

Members of the public will have until May 21, 2025 to submit a comment on the matter. The FTC has urged people who have been banned, shadow banned, demonetized, or ‘otherwise censored’ to share their comments.

At the time of writing, the inquiry already has a total of 93 public submissions. This includes details from people explaining the time they were banned from a social media or technology-based platform.

People can, however, file a private report if they don’t want the information to be out there for everyone to see.

Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram

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