FTC to Investigate Big Tech’s Content Moderation Practices for ‘Censorship’

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2025 – The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into the content moderation practices of major technology platforms Thursday.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson framed the probe as a response to concerns that social media companies have unfairly silenced users. “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,” Ferguson said.

Tech platform users who have been banned, shadow banned, demonetized, or otherwise censored were encouraged to share their comments by May 21 in response to the request for information. 

Many have called the FTC’s investigation the latest push from the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to influence how tech platforms handle content moderation.

Critics see it as part of a broader conservative strategy to challenge tech companies’ moderation policies while pressuring them to amplify certain political viewpoints.

As Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, warned during a speech at State of the Net 2025: “Trump administration officials have made regulating the speech of online platforms one of their top priorities. They claim to be waging a campaign against censorship. Don’t be fooled. It’s really a campaign of censorship.”

Digital rights groups, like Public Knowledge, have also pointed to the irony.

“President Trump and his Republican allies keep decrying “censorship” by others – in particular, their political opponents and anyone who says anything unfavorable about them – while actually doing [practicing censorship] themselves,” wrote Lisa Macpherson, policy director for Public Knowledge.

Macpherson described these efforts as “part of an orchestrated campaign across the branches of the Republican-led federal government to suppress unfavorable information, manipulate citizens, and allow the continued use of false information as a political strategy to gain power.”

The FTC’s investigation comes as the Trump administration continues to apply regulatory pressure on legacy and digital media organizations, alike. Beyond the FTC, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr has initiated investigations into CBS, NPR, PBS, and others, over their editorial decisions.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have floated legislative efforts to curtail content moderation protections under Section 230, and the House Judiciary Committee has ramped up hearings on what it calls the “censorship-industrial complex.”