The FTC is ramping up its investigation of Microsoft, sending a new round of investigative requests to the company’s competitors regarding the tech giant’s practice of bundling of AI, security and identity software in its offerings.
The tough stance of the FTC under Trump-appointed chairman Andrew Ferguson towards the biggest tech companies in the U.S. stands in contrast to recent claims about the administration’s attitude towards Silicon Valley. In the latest investigation of Microsoft, the FTC is probing the extent of Microsoft’s power in the enterprise software market. This stands in stark contrast to media claims that Trump’s agencies were taking the heat off the Masters of the Universe.
The ouster of Democrat-friendly DOJ antitrust head Gail Slater last week has led to claims that the Trump Administration has gone soft on Big Tech, with Axios reporting “this is being viewed as a victory for big business, including tech giants, over some of MAGA’s more populist voices.” Politico even noted that some MAGA pundits claimed Gail’s ouster meant “Big Tech is winning.”
Nevertheless, the FTC continues to use its powers energetically to investigate claims of Big Tech’s alleged abuse of market dominance.
As Breitbart News previously reported, Microsoft played a key role in online censorship, including in China, and worked closely with the U.S. government’s “censorship industrial complex” under the previous administration. Ferguson has made combating online censorship a priority at the FTC, warning tech companies against censoring Americans in response to foreign laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act.
By contrast, Slater, hailed by Democrats as a foe of Big Tech, directly backed the online censorship of Americans through her time with the “Transatlantic High Level Working Group on Content Moderation Online” spearheaded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at Upenn. The Working Group included representatives from the Big Tech companies, including Microsoft.
Microsoft is not the only big tech company Ferguson has targeted. Last Friday, Ferguson issue a warning letter Apple CEO Tim Cook noting that the company that its action may run afoul of regulations, including those “that suppress or promote news articles in their news aggregators or feeds based on the perceived ideological or political viewpoint of the article or publication may violate the FTC Act”
On January 20, Ferguson appealed antitrust case against Meta, noting that “that for over a decade Meta has illegally maintained a monopoly in personal social networking services through anticompetitive conduct.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.