Tim Cook Faces FTC Warning Over Apple News Curation

[NLLV]

So I'm guessing the FTC is also telling Fox News, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, Breitbart, and The Gateway Pundit to start including left-wing articles as well? Yeah, sure…

Your take demonstrates that you don’t understand the issue at hand.

The claim is that Apple News (known as a news aggregator) only picks up non conservative news sources and then puts these in their feed.

This is largely true.

Whether you understand the issue or not I don’t know.

I will tell you though that if you only hear one side, you can’t make educated conclusions because you lack data points.

 

[Jodeo]

TANGENT ALERT…
For two years, I had a Windows laptop for work. In the lower left corner of the monitor was a hot spot. When clicked, it would pop up Microsoft's answer to Apple news. I'm guessing it's tied heavily into Bing.com.

Anyway, it seemed to be fairly general news at first. After a while, I noticed my feed evolved based on articles I selected to read. The algorithm is strong with this one. I finally tested that theory in earnest last summer. Eventually my newsfeed became more humorous and outlandish as a result.

I don't believe anybody should be too selective or regular in where they get their news. It never hurts to read from sources you would normally disagree with. Never rely on one aggregator app or website. I think critically so as not to confuse commentary with information. Challenge your assumptions from time to time.

But for heaven sakes, turn off the TV news, go play with your kids, date your spouse, have your friends over spontaneously, even if the house is a mess. Do life.

As my communications law professor consistently reminded us in the early 1990s, "The people who matter most to me and the events that I can influence have never been found on the evening news."

"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read it, you're misinformed."
— Mark Twain, legendary author and eventual inventor of scanner software technology (or SO I READ in The Weekly World News).

 

[Banan911]

Murica. The land of the free, freedom and free speech 😅 Laughing my a** off.

If you as an administration wanna dictate media you’re not much better than countries like North Korea and China.

And at the same time the administration tries to lecture other countries about free speech!! It makes me sick 🤢

 

[robvalentine]

You must publish what we like to, even if all the publications are far right propaganda machines. Surely this is covered under the first amendment i.e. free speech?

 

[JayKay514]

It's the free market. Let the people decide if they want it from Apple or not. Whatever happened to the party of small government?

Small government for me (billionaire), big government for thee (working class / poor).

I'm reminded of Wilhoit's Law regarding the fundamental principle of Burkean conservatism (i.e. preserving aristocracy under the guise of democracy): There must be in-groups that the law protects but does not bind, and out-groups that the law binds but does not protect.

 

[zorinlynx]

Surely, if you want news, you should be looking for non-partisan reporting, so that it isn't coloured one way or the other. If I am reading news, I want a source that is equally biting on all sides of the spectrum.

I'd be equally appalled if the news stories were biased to the left or the right, so picking the most neutral sources to promote sounds like the right thing to do... As long as people can set up their own lists - we don't get Apple News here, so I don't know how users can configure it for their own needs.

Remember that to the republicans, a neutral source is "left wing news". If it's not 100% right wing propaganda, it might as well be a communist newspaper to them.

We do not live in normal times, these are not sane or rational people in charge.

 

[Silverstring]

…just have the truth be reported as it is without coloring.

People say this and it sounds nice in theory, but the fundamental problem with this supposed ideal in practice is that people (I’m not saying you specifically, I have no idea who you are and/or what you believe, I’m just replying to the idea expressed in the specific line I quoted) today not only think everything is “coloring”…they actively prefer it.

Think about it:
A news outlet would report FBI crime statistics that show an aggregate decrease of crime with zero commentary/editorializing…and people still object, saying things including (but not limited to:

• the statisticians counted incorrectly
• crimes were intentionally and falsely reclassified to alter the report
• real crimes aren’t being reported
• they personally know someone who was victimized in a crime a week ago
• on YouTube they see more video of crimes being committed than they’ve ever seen before
• when they were younger they “felt” safer than they do today
• they’ve been to places x and y and saw “rampant” crime
• you can’t trust the government any percent of the time because it’s the government and the government lies (this can be said about anything simply by substituting any org/institution/researcher/reporter for “government” madlib-style, and people have a universal “that can’t be true/that’s biased!” card)

…so any reporting that crime has dropped is “coloring”.

Similarly, a news outlet would, just by showing the raw data tables from the studies on the screen without editorializing/commentary, report statistics showing that unpasteurized milk is dangerous to drink and/or smoking cigarettes increases long-term health risks, and people would say things like:

• actually, unpasteurized milk is safe
• my family has lived on a farm for 6 generations and we’ve been drinking raw milk the entire time without anyone ever getting sick
• “well, my grandmother smoked two packs of cigarettes every day of her adult life and lived to 102 years old, strong as an ox”
• BIG MILK is putting out these fake statistics from doctoral researchers from independent universities who have been paid a kickback as propaganda to scare people into not drinking raw milk from local producers so that they can control the milk supply and raise prices…

You get the point. (These are illustrative examples only to show how anything can be “coloring”, not an attempt to assert/debate/derail with anyone the merits of the bullet points)

Heck, even forget about “coloring” within the stories/reporting, or about the subjects of those stories/that reporting. People would say that reporting on topics x and y in and of itself is “coloring”, because “nobody’s talking about” topics an and b, which should be reported on instead.

The notion of the news being reported “without coloring” in our post-truth world is a fantasy. Collectively, we don’t and can’t all agree on what “coloring” even is, so a coloring-free standard is impossible.

 

[VulchR]

My opinion of the Trump administration couldn't get any lower, but my question is this: Has any Apple customer been forced to subscribe to Apple news and complained? [crickets] Thought not.

I am pretty sure that consumers have a variety of mechanisms by which they can choose which news outlets they read (if any), just like US voters can choose who to vote for, and not to vote for, in November and in 2028. My advice is to exercise those rights.

As for fairness and balance in news, I do think there is an issue. I would like to see a Constitutional amendment that bans individuals or families from owning above a 5% share of any media outlet, or perhaps institute a cap on individual or family media ownership share that is inversely proportional to readership/viewership. This would make all media outlets truly public companies. I would include social media in this amendment. And if we were really being radical, we'd require all media companies to be non-profit institutions. Just my two cents.

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

TANGENT ALERT…
For two years, I had a Windows laptop for work. In the lower left corner of the monitor was a hot spot. When clicked, it would pop up Microsoft's answer to Apple news. I'm guessing it's tied heavily into Bing.com.

Anyway, it seemed to be fairly general news at first. After a while, I noticed my feed evolved based on articles I selected to read. The algorithm is strong with this one. I finally tested that theory in earnest last summer. Eventually my newsfeed became more humorous and outlandish as a result.

I don't believe anybody should be too selective or regular in where they get their news. It never hurts to read from sources you would normally disagree with. Never rely on one aggregator app or website. I think critically so as not to confuse commentary with information. Challenge your assumptions from time to time.

But for heaven sakes, turn off the TV news, go play with your kids, date your spouse, have your friends over spontaneously, even if the house is a mess. Do life.

As my communications law professor consistently reminded us in the early 1990s, "The people who matter most to me and the events that I can influence have never been found on the evening news."

"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read it, you're misinformed."
— Mark Twain, legendary author and eventual inventor of scanner software technology (or SO I READ in The Weekly World News).

I am reminded of the fact that most people don't think for themselves, they simply believe what is put in front of them without much consideration. This is why you have a lot of these people who are willing to be violent, they are unhappy with themselves and their lives since they spend most of it sitting in front of a box playing a curated message. It's really a form of voluntary brainwashing.

I try my best to look at all sources and never rely on one app or website. I don't follow any politician, party, or movement. I look at everything and come to my own conclusions. A lot of people only look at things one way or another and want to belong to a tribe, and die to defending that tribe, even if that tribe is doing something objectively wrong. Tons of people don't challenge themselves enough. It's not even a political statement to say that, as ultimately in my eyes "both sides" are wrong, and neither of them think critically.

 

[elrojo69]

there is no such thing as "left leaning" in the US mainstream media.

There's the right (Fox, WSJ, Newsmax, Breitbart, etc) and then there's the center (NYT, WAPO, CNN, etc), but there's no such thing as the left.

In practice, the US has only one party (pro business) with a fascist wing and a status quo wing.

sounds like you're super left

 

[turbineseaplane]

The most humorous part of this article is the thought that people are using Apple News in numbers large enough to matter.

 

[sleep/to/dream]

My opinion: Apple should leave the content business, period. Allow app makers to fill that gap, there are well enough of them.

Focus on building devices and software platforms for developers to build apps for. Focus on improved Pro apps and developer relations and customer experiences.

Make more things cross-platform such as tap-to-share, sending cash and iMessage.

Get rid of half the products you make and make doubly-good the remaining half. Adding an additional display size in many cases. And fix display sizing in general, the laptop display sizes are illogical and confusing, as is iMac.

Simplify product naming across the board. No numbers or childish sub-naming (mini, plus, iPhone 19 Pro Max Extreme Bananas). Just call it iPhone and give it three sizes and make a big fat one called iPhone Ultra in three sizes. No other phones. Apple Display, Apple Display Pro. Simplify.

Address common product complaints. Both hardware and software, including long-time bugs and basic missing and expected features.

Fix the AAA gaming problem.

Create a drag-and-drop design app that also features voice input for shape and gradient generation and manipulation. It’s insane that in 2026 an Apple app developer needs a third party app to make an app icon and branding logo.

After exiting the content businesses, it leaves so much work to do if the focus comes back to being great at the few things you do. It leaves more than enough work.

Tick-tock from software focused year to a hardware focused year, focusing on hardware practical and functionality and software reliability and delight.

Stop trying to be everything and make everything. Refocus on devices. Double iCloud storage tiers.

This guy gets it 🤙🏻

I’ve thought for a while they should alternate years with software and hardware to keep sales up and keep people interested. On hardware refresh years, refine the software and avoid too many new features

And yeah just call it iPhone (2026) like they do with macs, at least start this after the iPhone 20, if one is coming as an anniversary type model

Great post

 

[AppleMega]

This is like having a person with a gun to your head demanding you embrace their beliefs.

 

[WWP99]

Getting close to pitchfork time.

 

[erthquake]

Ironic that it was Reagan himself who abolished, through veto, the FCC's Fairness Doctrine. Even great presidents can get things wrong.

The FCC/Fairness Doctrine only applies to federally regulated airwaves, not internet content.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Absolutely true about the Daily Mail, but as an American, I can tell you that the DM will often have a fuller story and with pictures published, long before our American press. The greater the tragedy, the quicker it is published.

Of course, none of it is of higher educational value, but it is often published first. 🙂

They are hot garbage. First doesn't mean accurate or newsworthy.

 

[SpotOnT]

Oh no!!!! Apple News is not including enough stories from the tabloids and right-wing nut jobs!!! Whatever will Apple user do!?!?

I mean The Wall Street Journal is classic right-wing conservatism….but I guess traditional conservatism is not right-wing enough for MAGA….

 

[VulchR]

Remember that to the republicans, a neutral source is "left wing news". If it's not 100% right wing propaganda, it might as well be a communist newspaper to them.

We do not live in normal times, these are not sane or rational people in charge.

Well, what we do know is that the more politically biased a source is, the more inaccurate it is. See for instance https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive

 

[tennisproha]

The outlets named in the report include Fox News, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, Breitbart, and The Gateway Pundit.

The FTC is a joke. The outlets named are all tabloids, not real journalism. And the examples given citing left leaning publications like WSJ and WaPo are actually right leaning publications.

So the FTC is actually trying to suppress left leaning publications by demanding Apple publish only right leaning publications.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Now, did I vote for Trump? Yes I did. Do I like everything he has done? Bleep No.
Yet! I don’t blame Trump, I blame the House and Senate for behaving like elementary schoolers in the playground so bent on fighting each other because of their ‘parties’ and pointing fingers that they have FAILED to create any meaningful laws that would solve the issues and curb Trump’s … ego.

How do you expect the House and Senate with their Republican majorities to pass laws to curb Trump, when most of them still support most of the awful things he does and says he's going to do, and he's the one who signs the bills to pass them anyway? Even on the rare occasions when they co-create bills to curb him, that pass both chambers, he virtually never signs them. The Epstein files vote was a rarity, and Trump signed that bill since he knew otherwise it was one of the very few that he'd be overridden on if he didn't, and he didn't want to look "weak" by being overridden. For nearly every other bill that the Republicans and Democrats could conceivably work together on to reign him in, there wouldn't be a supermajority to override his veto. It's absurd to say that Trump isn't responsible when he doesn't sign bills that have passed in the House and Senate by simple majorities.

In other words, it's not the fault of the entire House and Senate for not being able to pass bills to reign in Trump--it's the fault of most of the Republicans in those houses, who wouldn't vote in enough numbers to overcome Trump's vetos.

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

My opinion of the Trump administration couldn't get any lower, but my question is this: Has any Apple customer been forced to subscribe to Apple news and complained? [crickets] Thought not.

I am pretty sure that consumers have a variety of mechanisms by which they can choose which news outlets they read (if any), just like US voters can choose who to vote for, and not to vote for, in November and in 2028. My advice is to exercise those rights.

As for fairness and balance in news, I do think there is an issue. I would like to see a Constitutional amendment that bans individuals or families from owning above a 5% share of any media outlet, or perhaps institute a cap on individual or family media ownership share that is inversely proportional to readership/viewership. This would make all media outlets truly public companies. I would include social media in this amendment. And if we were really being radical, we'd require all media companies to be non-profit institutions. Just my two cents.

I agree with this. This is an actual sensible proposal I am hearing here.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I get my news on X (certain places) or YouTube and occasionally news sites. I don’t need Apple News expensive service, I can get elsewhere for free.

People who say they get their news from X or YT or TikTok or Facebook or whatever are hilarious. It's like someone saying "Who needs farmers? I get my food from the grocery store!"

Unless you're following the original reporters's social media accounts themselves, you're getting someone else's spin on the news. And even then, those original reporters are going to link to what's been published at their outlets eventually.

I definitely agree that I don't need Apple or anyone else to curate my sources of information for me. I can do that myself.

 

[FoxyKaye]

In this circumstance, I believe "Left Leaning" means "Factual." 😂🤣😂

 

[DogHouseDub]

In this circumstance, I believe "Left Leaning" means "Factual." 😂🤣😂

I was told there would be no fact checking

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

This guy gets it 🤙🏻

I’ve thought for a while they should alternate years with software and hardware to keep sales up and keep people interested. On hardware refresh years, refine the software and avoid too many new features

And yeah just call it iPhone (2026) like they do with macs, at least start this after the iPhone 20, if one is coming as an anniversary type model

Great post

Cheers. My thinking was on the hardware refresh years add security updates to software—no new features. This gives a year to work on the new major software version without releasing it and the remaining time leading up to WWDC to refine and clean up the whole thing—battery efficiency, bugs, issues, animations. WWDC could similarly move to every other year to align with software release years.

Knowing no new hardware is coming every second year gives them much more time for quality of both hardware and software. Once the benefits are felt the consumer would far prefer this is my thinking. As a small bonus, on software years Apple could add seasonal cases, new watch strap colors, and perhaps an additional phone colour. But no new devices.