Technology giant Appleis facing serious accusations from the Federal Trade Commission over its seeming political preferences. Specifically those that appear to be baked into the company's Apple News service.
The accusations stem from an investigation by the Media Research Center, a right-leaning watchdog group that investigates media bias. Their investigation found that of 620 stories promoted by Apple News during morning hours, the busiest time of day, an incredible 440 of them came from left-wing media. The other 180 were published by more centrist publications. Which leaves, naturally, quite literally zero stories that were published by right-leaning media.
This covered an entire month's worth of Apple News recommendations, from January 1-31, 2026. Not one single conservative-leaning media outlet surfaced at the top of its associated app. Seems a bit too overwhelmingly biased to be a coincidence, no? That's where the FTC comes in.
Apple CEO Tim Cook. (Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
TheNew York Postreportedon a letter sent by FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson toApple CEO Tim Cook, taking immediate action into what appears to be overwhelming bias.
There are obvious First Amendment issues at play, namely Apple's ability to say what it wants. But as Ferguson explains, this type of bias could reflect "material misrepresentations" from the company towards consumers. And that such misrepresentations are not protected First Amendment speech.
"The First Amendment protects the speech ofBig Techfirms," he writes in the letter. "But the First Amendment has never extended its protection to material misrepresentations made to consumers, nor does it immunize speakers from conduct that Congress has deemed unfair under the FTC Act, even if that conduct involves speech."
Apple News article recommendations are based on a blend of human editors and an internal algorithm that chooses articles to push to the top of users' feeds. PerMRC's data, there were 72 articles from the Washington Post that received featured treatment, 54 from the Associated Press, 50 by NBC News, 34 from the Guardian, and 25 from NPR. There were 54 articles highlighted from the Wall Street Journal, rated by MRC as a "centrist" outlet. Zero stories from the New York Post, Fox News, or other right-wing media companies received the same treatment.
**Note: Fox News shares a parent company withOutKick**
The numbers seem too one-sided to be an accident. And it wouldn't be remotely surprising were it to be revealed that internal Apple staff, whether on the editorial side or those building the recommendation algorithm, would put their thumb on the scale to avoid allowing right-leaning content to gain additional viewership. Whether anything comes of this remains to be seen, but it's an extremely concerning allegation that would once again demonstrate how hard the left works to eliminate alternate views.
Source: The Latest & Most Breaking News With OutKick
