- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) President wrote a letter to 13 US Tech Giants calling on them to withstand foreign requirements to weaken encryption or censorship
- FTC President Andrew Ferguson specifically mentions EU’s Digital Service Act, UK Online Safety ACT and UK Investigatory Powers Act as problematic
- The promise comes days after the United States managed to get Britain dropping the backdoor of encryption demand against Apple
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) encourages us tech giants to resist foreign requirements to either weaken their user’s security by breaking encryption protection or imposing their platform censorship.
On Thursday, August 21, 2025, FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson wrote a letter to 13 tech companies, including Apple, Alphabet (parent company behind Google), Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.
Ferguson specifically mentions the EU’s Digital Service Act, UK Online Safety Act and UK Investigatory Powers Act as an attempt to “censor content or impair security for users.” These actions, he warns, could also violate section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unreasonable or misleading actions while eroding Americans’ freedoms and online security.
“Foreign governments seeking to limit free expression or weaken data security in the United States may trust that companies have an incentive to simplify their operations and legal compliance measures by applying uniform policies across jurisdictions,” Ferguson wrote.
This promise comes only days after the US officials managed to score a win and caused Britain to agree to drop its encryption backdoor request against Apple, which was issued back in February via a technical capacity message (TCN) under 2016 -Investigation Powers.
A greater push for control
The United Kingdom and the EU have been pushing for greater control over the Internet in the name of security in the last few years, creating legislation that often requires US tech providers to adjust their services.
There are two main areas in violation: encryption and harmful but legal content.
Encryption refers to the technology used by security software such as the best VPN apps, secure E email and encrypted messaging apps to keep online communication privately between you and the recipient.
Although it is a crucial protection – especially since greater cyber attacks like salt typhoon become the norm – authorities see this as an obstacle to criminal investigation and press for the creation of back doors for encrypted software.
Likes Signal and WhatsApp have already expressed their concerns against laws and suggestions such as the British online security law and EU chat control.
US technology companies and officials have also raised concerns about new UK and EU requirements to mitigate online dangers by stopping the spread of wrong information and content that could harm minors.
These friction led to the Trump administration considering imposing sanctions on the EU to censor Americans and introduce higher costs for US tech companies under its digital service -law -Pakinomist reported on Monday, August 26.
