Oppose Government Interference in Apple News Editorial Decisions

I am writing to urge you to oppose Senator Marsha Blackburn's attempt to pressure Apple into changing its editorial practices for Apple News, as well as any similar efforts by your colleagues to use government power to dictate content curation by private media platforms. Senator Blackburn has demanded that Apple CEO Tim Cook explain why Apple News featured zero articles from right-leaning outlets among 620 "top stories" analyzed in January by the Media Research Center. She has given Cook a March 4 deadline to answer questions about alleged anti-conservative bias and to detail Apple's editorial procedures and algorithms. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson has already sent a separate letter to Cook on February 11 warning that Apple could be violating federal consumer protection laws. This represents a dangerous overreach of government authority. Private companies have the constitutional right to make their own editorial decisions without government interference. The First Amendment protects Apple's right to curate content as it sees fit, just as it protects newspapers and other media outlets. When government officials use their positions to pressure companies about editorial choices, they threaten fundamental freedoms that protect all Americans regardless of political affiliation. Apple News is a free service that users can choose to use or not. Consumers have countless alternatives for news consumption, including directly visiting any outlet they prefer. The market provides ample opportunity for people to access diverse perspectives without government mandating content distribution. The precedent being set here is alarming. If the government can pressure Apple to feature specific outlets, what prevents future officials from making similar demands of other platforms, publishers, or broadcasters? This path leads to government control over information flow, which should concern every American who values freedom of expression. I urge you to publicly oppose these efforts and to defend the principle that private companies have the right to make editorial decisions without government coercion. Please stand against your colleagues' attempts to weaponize regulatory power to influence media curation.