Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson urged more than a tech dozen companies not to censor Americans’ free speech or privacy at the behest of the European Union or the United Kingdom.
“I am concerned that these actions by foreign powers to impose censorship and weaken end-to-end encryption will erode Americans’ freedoms and subject them to myriad harms, such as surveillance by foreign governments and an increased risk of identity theft and fraud,” Ferguson wrote in letters to more than a dozen of the prominent tech platforms, including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.
The FTC letters explain that the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act and Investigatory Powers Act as well as the European Union’s Digital Services Act might incentivize tech platforms to weaken their encryption to enable law enforcement to view Americans’ private communications.
Ferguson continued:
I am also concerned that companies such as your own might attempt to simplify compliance with the laws, demands, or expected demands of foreign governments by censoring Americans or subjecting them to increased foreign surveillance even when the foreign government’s requests do not technically require that. Indeed, foreign governments seeking to limit free expression or weaken data security in the United States might count on the fact that companies have an incentive to simplify their operations and legal compliance measures by applying uniform policies across jurisdictions.
Ferguson noted in the letters that weakening encryption or censoring Americans to comply with a foreign powers’ laws may violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act:
Weakening encryption or other security measures to comply with the laws, demands, or expected demands of a foreign government may also violate Section 5. If a company promises consumers that it encrypts or otherwise keeps secure online communications but adopts weaker security due to the actions of a foreign government, such conduct may deceive consumers who rightfully expect effective security, not the increased susceptibility to breach or intercept desired by a foreign power. Consumers may be further deceived if companies fail to prominently disclose that weaker security measures were adopted due to the actions of a foreign government, information that might be material to a consumer’s decision to use a service. It might also be an unfair practice to weaken the security of Americans’ communications to placate foreign powers that do not have Americans’ best interests at heart and that might seek to surveil or otherwise hurt Americans.
Censoring Americans to comply with a foreign power’s laws, demands, or expected demands can also violate Section 5. American consumers do not reasonably expect to be censored to appease a foreign power and may be deceived by such actions. And as with weakened security measures, consumers might be further deceived if companies do not prominently disclose that censorious policies were adopted due to the actions of a foreign government, as consumers might not want to use a service that exposes them to censorship by foreign powers. Further, it might be an unfair practice to subject American consumers to censorship by a foreign power by applying foreign legal requirements, demands, or expected demands to consumers outside of that foreign jurisdiction. [Emphasis added]
Ferguson sent these letters to big tech platforms as the United Kingdom has agreed to drop its demand that Apple provide Americans’ encrypted data following pressure from the Trump administration and Vice President JD Vance.
He added, “Protecting the privacy and security of Americans’ personal data and safeguarding their liberty by combatting illegal censorship are priorities for the Trump-Vance FTC. Part and parcel of the Commission’s efforts is engagement with stakeholders on these important issues.”
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