The Trump administration’s Federal Trade Commission has deleted four years’ worth of business guidance blogs as of Tuesday morning. This includes important consumer protection information related to artificial intelligence and the agency’s landmark privacy lawsuits under former chairman Lina Khan against companies such as Amazon and Microsoft. Over 300 blogs have been deleted.
The FTC website contains pages that host all agents Business-related blogs and guidance Information released during the administration of former President Joe Biden is no longer included. Current and former FTC employees spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation. These blogs included advice from the FTC on how large tech companies can avoid violating consumer protection laws.
One is the deleted blog, title “Hey, Alexa! According to two FTC complaints, Amazon and its ring security camera products are said to have leveraged sensitive consumer data to train the e-commerce giant’s algorithms. (Amazon opposed the FTC’s claim.) It also provided guidance to companies operating similar products and services. Another post with title “$20 million FTC payments address illegal collections of Microsoft Xbox children’s data: a game changer in COPPA compliance.” Using Microsoft Settlement of 2023 as an example, we instruct high-tech companies on how to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The settlement continued FTC allegations that Microsoft has retrieved data From children using the Xbox system without the consent of their parents or guardians.
“In terms of the message to the industry about what our compliance expectations are, that is, in a sense, the most important part of enforcement action, and they are just trying to erase people from history,” Source A tells Wired.
Another deleted FTC blog titled “Seduction Test: Engineering of AI and Consumer Trusts” This outlines how businesses can avoid creating chatbots that violate the FTC Act rules for unfair or deceptive products. This blog Award won in 2023 About “An excellent explanation of artificial intelligence.”
The Trump administration receives extensive support from the technology industry. Big companies like Amazon and Meta, as well as high-tech entrepreneurs like Openai CEO Sam Altman, all have been donated to Trump’s Inauguration Fund. Other Silicon Valley leaders, like Elon Musk and David Sacks, are officially advising the administration. Mask’s so-called Government Efficiency Office (DOGE) employs engineers who sourced from mask tech companies. And already, federal agencies like the General Services Bureau are beginning to deploy AI products like GSAI, a general-purpose government chatbot.
The FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Wired.
Deleting the blog raises serious compliance concerns under the Federal Records Act and the Public Government Data Act, a former FTC official told Wired. During the Biden administration, the FTC leadership no longer agreed to a “warning” label that outweighed the previous administration’s public decisions, sources said, fearing that the removal would violate the law.
Since President Donald Trump designated Andrew Ferguson to replace Kern with FTC chairman in January, Republican regulators have vowed to leverage their powers to chase big tech companies. Unlike Kern, however, Ferguson’s criticism has focused on long-standing Republican allegations that social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram censor online censored speeches. Before being elected chairman, Ferguson told Trump that his vision for the agency also includes Biden-era regulations on artificial intelligence and more stringent merger standards. The New York Times reported in December.
In an interview with CNBC last weekFerguson argued that moderated content could represent an antitrust violation. “If companies are degraded product quality by stoking people out because they hold certain views, it could indicate that there is a competitive issue,” he said.
A source who spoke with Wired on Tuesday claimed that they were the only group to benefit from the removal of these blogs.
“They’re talking big games with censorship, but at the end of the day, they’re going to actually hit the final thing for these companies, whether they can train that data, and whether this administration is planning to step into the censorship work or not,” “I think that’s a very satisfying change with big technology.”
