- The president of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wrote a letter to 13 giants of American technology, calling on them to resist foreign requests to weaken encryption or censorship content
- The president of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson, specifies specifically that the EU Digital Service Act, UK Online Safety Act and UK Investigatory Powers Act as problematic
- The commitment comes a few days after the United States managed to bring the request for a stolen door of the encryption against Apple
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asks American technology giants to resist foreign requests to weaken their users’ safety by breaking encryption or imposing censorship on their platforms.
On Thursday, August 21, 2025, the president of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson, wrote a letter to 13 technological companies, notably Apple, Alphabet (parent company behind Google), Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.
Ferguson specifically mentions the EU digital service law, the online security law and the UK inquiry powers as attempts to “censor content or degrade security for users”. These actions, he warns, could also violate Article 5 of the Federal Commerce Commission Act which prohibits unjust or deceptive acts, while eroding the freedoms of the Americans and online security.
“Foreign governments that seek to limit the release of expression or weaken data security in the United States could count on the fact that companies are encouraged to simplify their operations and their legal compliance measures by applying uniform policies through the courts,” wrote Ferguson.
This commitment only occurs days after the US officials have managed to mark a victory and have made sure that the United Kingdom agrees to remove its request for a stolen encryption of encryption against Apple, which was published in February via a technical capacity notice (TCN) under The 2016 survey powers law.
A greater thrust for control
The United Kingdom and the EU have pushed greater control on the Internet in the name of security in recent years, manufacturing legislation that often obliges American technology suppliers to adjust their services.
There are two main areas of discord: encryption and harmful, but legal content.
Encryption refers to the technology used by security software such as the best VPN applications, secure emails and encrypted messaging applications to keep private communications between you and the receiver.
Although it is crucial protection – especially since the major cyber attacks such as the salt typhoon become the norm – the authorities see this as an obstacle to a criminal investigation and push for the creation of wanderings in encrypted software.
Signal and WhatsApp tastes have already expressed their concerns against laws and proposals such as UK Online Safety Act and EU cat control.
Technological companies and US officials have also raised concerns about the requirements of the new United Kingdom and the EU to mitigate online dangers by interrupting the spread of disinformation and content that could harm minors.
These frictions led the Trump administration to consider imposing sanctions on the EU to censor Americans and impose higher costs on American technological companies under its Digital Services Act – PK Press Club reported on Monday, August 26.
