FTC Investigation into Big Tech Censorship Should Aim for a PERMANENT Solution to Online Bullying

“Tech companies must not intimidate their users,” asserted Federal Trade Commission head Andrew Ferguson while announcing an inquiry into Big Tech’s censorship and shadow banning.

Ferguson’s investigation aims to hold tech behemoths like Google, Facebook’s parent Meta, and possibly Elon Musk’s X accountable for “not only unAmerican” but “potentially illegal” acts of censorship, including towards The Post.

The FTC is calling for public feedback on how these companies’ practices have suppressed speech, including “possible legal violations.”

However, this investigation must not solely focus on the past.

Indeed, Americans require clarity on how the censorship-industrial complex infiltrated federal institutions during the first Trump administration and flourished under Biden as various agencies, including the FBI and CIA, collaborated with social media platforms to silence dissenting voices — notably the suppression of The Post’s laptop reporting, COVID “wrongthink,” among others.

Nevertheless, despite individuals like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg changing course (by dismantling his entire “fact-check” system), this does not signify that the threats have disappeared, nor that only one political side is vulnerable.

The left will return to power eventually, and there is no assurance that Musk won’t leverage X’s undisclosed algorithmic influences to favor one side over another.

While any investigation can begin by unearthing historical censorship issues, the country requires established guidelines and governance frameworks to prevent a recurrence.

Protections for free speech should not hinge on which political faction is victorious in any particular election.