The Federal Commerce Fee has eliminated three weblog posts from the Lina Khan-era that addressed open-source AI and dangers of AI to customers, in accordance with a Wired report.
One publish, titled “On Open-Weights Basis Fashions,” was revealed July 10, 2024. One other, titled “Customers Are Voicing Issues About AI,” got here out in October 2023. A 3rd, authored by Khan’s workers, was revealed on January 3, 2025 with the title “AI and the Danger of Client Hurt.” That publish famous the FTC was “being attentive to AI’s potential for real-world cases of hurt – from incentivizing industrial surveillance to enabling fraud and impersonation to perpetuating unlawful discrimination.”
TechCrunch has reached out to the FTC to study why the posts had been taken down. Khan declined to remark.
These removals are a part of a broader sample below the Trump administration, which started issuing govt orders to direct federal businesses to take away or modify substantial quantities of presidency content material.
After his inauguration, Trump additionally put in a brand new head of the FTC and eliminated a number of FTC commissioners, putting in management that centered much less on Khan’s aggressive antitrust agenda and extra on deregulation for Huge Tech. In September, new FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson submitted suggestions for deleting or revising anticompetitive laws throughout the whole federal authorities.
The weblog posts most just lately eliminated by the FTC, which centered on client hurt, don’t appear to align with the Trump administration’s AI Motion Plan. That plan has diminished its concentrate on security and guardrails, as an alternative favoring quick development and competitors with China. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has been vocal about backing open-source initiatives.
Former FTC public affairs director Douglas Farrar informed TechCrunch: “I used to be shocked to see the Andrew Ferguson led FTC be so out of line with the Trump White Home on this sign to the market.”
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
This isn’t the primary time this administration’s FTC has eliminated content material. In March, Wired reported that the FTC eliminated round 300 posts associated to AI, client safety, and the company’s lawsuits in opposition to tech corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.
Whereas tons of of weblog posts from Khan’s tenure and earlier stay on the company’s Workplace of Expertise Weblog, Ferguson’s FTC has but to publish any posts to the location, regardless of the quick tempo of the AI race, which has resulted in a number of enterprise mergers and acquisitions — together with acqui-hires — that could possibly be seen as anticompetitive.
The FTC weblog culling follows the Trump administration’s removing or modification of 1000’s of presidency net pages and datasets, notably content material associated to variety; fairness, and inclusion; gender identification; public well being; and environmental coverage. For instance, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has eliminated knowledge on subjects starting from power medical situations to HIV/AIDS. The Justice Division has eliminated research on hate crimes, and the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken down the congressionally mandated Nationwide Local weather Evaluation stories.
The removing of content material – together with the weblog posts from the FTC – may violate the Federal Data Act, which requires federal businesses to protect data that correctly doc authorities actions, and the Open Authorities Knowledge Act, which requires businesses to publish their knowledge as “open knowledge” by default.
The Biden administration’s FTC management positioned warning labels on content material revealed throughout earlier administrations that it disagreed with, in accordance with Wired.
{content material}
Supply: {feed_title}