Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 20, 2026.
Ludovic Marin | AFP | Getty Images
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson asked Tim Cook to consider the possibility of political bias. apple The news initiative follows allegations that news platforms are censoring conservative news organizations.
“Recently, there have been reports that Apple News is systematically promoting news stories from left-wing news outlets and suppressing news stories from more conservative publications,” Ferguson said in a letter posted to X on Wednesday.
Apple declined to comment on the letter.
A focus on supposedly conservative censorship has been a regular theme of the Trump administration, and the White House launched a media bias section on its website in December.
The webpage includes a “House of Criminal Shame” listing weekly articles the administration has deemed misleading.
The portal was announced the same week, “calling on ordinary Americans to support the truth and hold fake news accountable” by posting biased articles.
Ferguson acknowledged that Apple can legally promote any content it wants on its news platform.
“We do not have the authority to require Apple or any other company to take a positive stance on political issues or to cherry-pick news that aligns with some ideology,” he said.
Ferguson’s letter cites a study by the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, that looked at Apple News’ most popular stories during morning hours in January.
The study found that no news organization considered right-leaning by AllSides’ media bias rating was featured in the 620-story sample.
President Donald Trump shared an article about the study on the New York Post’s Truth social account early Wednesday morning.
Apple has so far weathered President Trump’s second term fairly well, weathering an initial tariff offensive and a crackdown on Chinese manufacturing, including the president’s desire to make iPhones American-made.
Cook handed President Trump a gold and glass trophy in the Oval Office in August as the company pledged an additional $100 billion to strengthen U.S. manufacturing.
According to Section 5 of the FTC Act, news aggregators can violate the terms if their suppression or promotion is “contrary to the reasonable expectations of consumers, such that failure to disclose ideological bias is a material omission.”
Ferguson directed Cook to undergo a “comprehensive review” and take corrective action if Apple News’ curation is inconsistent with the company’s terms of service.
