US warns tech companies against complying with European and British ‘censorship’ laws

U.S. tech companies were warned on Thursday they could face action from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for complying with the European Union and United Kingdom’s regulations about the content shared on their platforms.

Andrew Ferguson, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FTC, wrote to chief executives criticizing what he described as foreign attempts at “censorship” and efforts to countermand the use of encryption to protect American consumers’ data.

The letter said that “censoring Americans to comply with a foreign power’s laws” could be considered a violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act — the legislation enforced by the FTC — which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices in commerce.

While the law has historically been used to prosecute misleading claims about fire safety or lending companies’ hidden fees, Ferguson’s letter stated: “American consumers do not reasonably expect to be censored to appease a foreign power and may be deceived by such actions.”

Ferguson also repeated concerns widespread among conservatives that “Americans [have] been censored and expelled from platforms for uttering opinions and beliefs that were not shared by a small Silicon Valley elite.”

The FTC chairman specifically highlighted the EU’s Digital Services Act and the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, as well as the British government's reported attempt to ensure it could access encrypted content on Apple iCloud accounts, as acts that could cause companies to fall afoul of Section 5.

Officials in Westminster have been bracing for a clash with Vice President JD Vance over its online safety laws, particularly in the wake of Vance chastising European countries for attempts to regulate free speech. More extreme platforms including 4chan, Gab and Kiwi Farms have to-date publicly refused to comply with British regulations. In extremis, ISPs in the country could be instructed to block access to those sites.

Lawyers representing Gab, in a response to British regulators shared by the company’s chief executive Andrew Torba, dismissed the legal request by citing President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14149, and said: “It is the policy of the United States to ensure that no United States agent or agency facilitates the censorship of American citizens. It is also the policy of the United States to use tariffs to combat digital censorship.”

Earlier this week, a senior U.S. intelligence official claimed the British government had backed down from a controversial legal demand targeting Apple’s iCloud encryption following an intervention by JD Vance.

In his letter on Thursday, Ferguson wrote: “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.”

He invited the chief executives to meet with his office “to discuss how, in the face of competing pressures from global regulators, you will honour your privacy and security commitments to American consumers and meet your ongoing obligations under U.S. law.”