Letter from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) apple Allegations of political bias in the tech giant’s news management app.

In a letter to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook On Wednesday, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson warned that Apple News may have violated Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices.

‘this first amendment Protect speech at big tech companies. But the First Amendment never extended its protections to material misrepresentations about consumers, nor did it shield speakers from conduct that Congress deemed unfair under the FTC Act, even if that conduct involved speech,” Ferguson told Cook.

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a letter to Apple over allegations of alleged bias in its Apple News management app. (CFOTO/Future Publishing, Getty Images)

Ferguson continued, “Thus, Big Tech companies may violate the FTC Act when they suppress or promote news articles in their news aggregators or feeds based on the article or publication’s ideological or political views when such suppression or promotion (1) is inconsistent with the terms and conditions of service; (2) violates reasonable expectations of consumers such that failure to disclose ideological favoritism is a material omission; or (3) when these practices cause substantial harm that is neither reasonably avoidable nor outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or competition.”

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The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission says alleged bias in Apple’s news algorithm may violate the platform’s own terms of service to consumers.

“The FTC is not a speech police; we have no authority to require Apple or any other company to take an affirmative position on any political issue, or to curate news coverage that aligns with an ideology,” Ferguson wrote. “But Congress requires us to protect consumers from material misrepresentations and omissions, including when the products or services offered to consumers are speech-related products.”

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson said Apple may have violated the Federal Trade Commission Act. (Kayla Bartkoski/Getty Images)

Ferguson concluded his letter by urging Cook to conduct a “comprehensive review” of Apple’s terms of service to ensure its management practices are not in violation and to “take prompt corrective action” if they are.

Neither Cook nor Apple representatives responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

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In the letter, Ferguson addressed Apple News’ alleged bias against Apple CEO Tim Cook. (Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images)

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A recent study by the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, examined content on Apple News, the news aggregator that comes pre-installed on Apple devices.

Of the 620 stories shared between January 1 and January 31, 440 were from outlets rated as left-leaning and 180 were from centrist outlets. Research shows that zero comes from right-leaning media.