Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson on Monday told the antitrust committee to investigate “unlawful collusion” among big tech platforms and recommend boycotts of advertisers it believes threaten competition. I asked him to stop.
Mr. Ferguson pointed out that Commissioner Melissa Holyoak: proposed Reinstates President Trump's Executive Order 13925 to promote transparency regarding the content moderation and censorship practices of major technology companies.
“When the ability of Americans to have a robust public debate about issues of national importance is at stake, no stone should be left unturned. The committee should launch these investigations.” he claimed.
top ferguson competitor Replacement of FTC Chair Lina Khan said The government should apply antitrust laws to any platform that restricts free speech.
We need to not only specifically address censorship practices, but also examine the structural issues that may have given these platforms such influence over American life and speech in the first place. We must vigorously enforce our antitrust laws, especially against platforms found to be unlawfully restricting Americans' ability to freely and openly exchange ideas. We must prosecute all illegal collusion among online platforms and stand up to advertiser boycotts that threaten competition between them. [Emphasis added]
Ferguson noted that all major online platforms are being censored “en masse” and that any agreement to do so would raise antitrust charges.
For years, major speech platforms appeared to be censoring in unison. They banned dissenting opinions about the origins of COVID-19, mask mandates, the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, transgenderism, and the integrity of the 2020 election. All major speech platforms, including Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, banned President Trump almost simultaneously in early 2021. 2 And this phenomenon was never more evident than in 2020, when major Big Tech platforms banned reporting and discussion en masse. Hunter Biden's laptop story.
Antitrust laws generally do not prohibit competitors from engaging in unilateral and parallel conduct, that is, identical or substantially similar conduct occurring at about the same time but coincidentally4. However, antitrust laws prohibit competitors from entering into non-competition agreements. If platforms collude with each other to set a common censorship policy, such an agreement would amount to an agreement not to compete on terms and product quality. “[A]As far as the Sherman Act is concerned, cooperative agreements regarding contract terms are as illegal as boycotts.
he claimed that missouri v. MercyThe findings revealed a “shocking extent” of cooperation between the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FBI, CISA, the State Department, and big tech companies to “suppress dissident speech.”
Ferguson said another danger to free speech is the possibility of an advertising boycott by groups led against X (formerly Twitter) after Elon Musk bought the platform. He said the boycott was organized by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Newsguard has a browser extension that provides ratings based on news organizations' claims of credibility, and while you can rate websites however you like, “antitrust laws prohibit third parties from We do not allow the promotion of collective boycotts.”
“Censorship, even when done transparently and honestly, is harmful to American democracy. The Commission must use its powers to the fullest to protect the free speech rights of all Americans. “No,” Ferguson concluded in a statement. “That power includes the power to investigate collusion that could stifle competition and suppress free speech online. We should conduct such investigations. When our investigations reveal anti-competitive cartels that promote or encourage censorship, we should expose them.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
