FTC Chair Tells Tech Giants to Hold the Line on Encryption

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson warned U.S. technology companies about foreign governments' efforts to force backdoor access to encrypted data and to pressure platforms to censor content; he sent letters to major providers (including Akamai, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Cloudflare, Discord, GoDaddy, Meta, Microsoft, Signal, Snap, Slack, and X) urging them to resist such demands, arguing weakened security could deceive consumers and potentially violate Section 5 of the FTC Act.