US businessman Tim Cook looks on during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 20, 2026.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has called on Tim Cook to review possible political bias in Apple News' practices after allegations that the platform is censoring conservative news outlets.
"Recently, there have been reports that Apple News has systematically promoted news articles from left-wing news outlets and suppressed news articles from more conservative publications," Ferguson wrote in the letter posted to X on Wednesday.
Apple declined to comment on the letter.
The company can legally promote any content it wants to on Apple News, which Ferguson acknowledged.
"We do not have the authority to require Apple or any other firm to take affirmative positions on any political issue, nor to curate news offerings consistent with one ideology or another," he wrote.
Ferguson's letter cited a study from the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, that looked at featured stories on Apple News during morning time slots in January.