FTC Probes Apple News Over Systemic Exclusion of Independent Media

On February 12, 2026, FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson sent a formal inquiry to Apple CEO Tim Cook, demanding transparency regarding the curation practices of Apple News. The investigation follows a Media Research Center (MRC) audit conducted throughout January 2026, which found that not a single link in the 'Top Stories' section originated from a right-leaning news outlet. Apple News currently serves 125 million monthly active users, making it the primary information gatekeeper for a significant portion of the American electorate.

At the center of the probe is the disparity between Apple’s public marketing of 'platform neutrality' and the internal editorial decisions led by Editor-in-Chief Lauren Kern. Internal documents referenced in the FTC inquiry suggest the existence of a 'whitelist' composed of legacy media partners. This structure ensures that a narrow group of preferred publishers—including The New York Times and NBC News—dominates the 'Top Stories' carousel, which is the most valuable digital real estate on over 1 billion active iPhones.

The financial incentives for this gatekeeping are substantial. Apple News+ generates approximately $1 billion in annual revenue, with Apple taking a 30% cut of ad revenue generated within the app. By prioritizing legacy partners, Apple maintains a closed economic loop that benefits established corporations while systematically demonetizing smaller, independent competitors. This 'revolving door' between legacy newsrooms and Apple’s editorial team has created an ideological monopoly that obscures its own mechanics behind 'proprietary algorithms.'

While legacy outlets like The Washington Post have dismissed the inquiry as a partisan attack or a technical moderation issue, the FTC is treating it as a consumer protection violation. The inquiry questions whether Apple is misleading its 125 million users by presenting a curated, human-selected list of stories as a neutral or representative sample of the news landscape. For independent publishers, exclusion from this list acts as a de facto shadowban, depriving them of the traffic and revenue necessary to sustain operations.

For the average iPhone user, this means the 'reality' presented on their home screen is a manufactured consensus. When a single corporation dictates what 125 million people see, the result is the quiet elimination of cognitive diversity and the consolidation of political influence within a small circle of Cupertino-approved editors. The investigation now seeks to determine if this curation is a service to the user or a protection racket for the legacy media establishment.