One of the most notable user bans enacted due to content moderation in recent years was US president Donald Trump.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said tech companies “may have violated the law” through their content moderation practices and user bans.
The authority, which has launched a public inquiry into the matter, said the companies can employ “confusing or unpredictable internal procedures” that can cut users off from a site, limiting their ability to share ideas or affiliations freely and openly.
As part of its inquiry, the FTC is seeking public comment on how consumers may have been harmed by tech platforms in this way. Specifically, it is looking for comment from users who have been banned, shadow banned, demonetised or otherwise censored
FTC chair Andrew N Ferguson said tech companies should not be “bullying their users”.
“This inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”
While the FTC did not specifically say which law may be violated, it did add refer to “unfair or deceptive acts or practices, or potentially unfair methods of competition” in its statement.
“Censorship by technology platforms is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal,” the statement read.
“Such actions taken by tech platforms may harm consumers, affect competition, may have resulted from a lack of competition or may have been the product of anti-competitive conduct.”
Guess who’s back, back again?
One of the most notable user bans in recent years was Donald Trump. At the end of his first term in the White House, the US president was locked out of several social media platforms in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol.
The decision was made after Trump used the platforms to spread false claims about election fraud after he lost to Joe Biden. The bans were upheld by many of the sites for several years, leading Trump to create his own platform, Truth Social.
However, shortly after taking over Twitter, Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account following a poll he ran on the site. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk said in a tweet at the time.
In 2023, Trump was also reinstated on Facebook and Instagram ahead of his plans to rerun for the presidency – a campaign which was successful in November 2024.
While Musk – who is now part of Trump’s government – has faced criticism for lax content moderation for some time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been loosening the platform’s content moderation.
At the beginning of this year, the social media giant owner announced plans to undo restrictions on political content and ended third-party fact-checking at the beginning of this year.
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