The judge says that the FTC investigation into media issues “should alarm all Americans”

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the investigation of the Federal Trade Commission in the left defense group Media Matters.

In 2023, Media Matters published research showing that advertisements of large companies had appeared alongside anti-Semitic and other offensive content on Xon Musk, when the main advertisers retired later from the platform, X Pases Media Matters. He too Anonizers of prosecution and advertiser groups On what he claimed was an “systematic illegal boycott”.

After Donald Trump of Musk, then, Donald Trump, again in January, the FTC also began an investigation into the question of whether media issues had illegally collided with advertisers.

On Friday, however, judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan rose to the side of media issues and blocked the FTC investigation. In His decisionSOOKNANAN (judge of the District Court of the Columbia District appointed by Joe Biden) wrote that the article of media issues represented “the activity of first amendment par excellence” and that the “expansive” investigation requests of the FTC seemed to be “an act of reprisals”.

“This should alarm all Americans when the government retaliated against individuals or organizations to engage in a public debate protected by the Constitution,” she wrote. “And this alarm should be even stronger when the government retaliated against those engaged in the newspaper and reports.”

Sooknanan noted that before her appointment as the current president of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson had appeared on the podcast of Steve Bannon and called on the FTC to investigate progressive groups criticizing online disinformation, and which he then “brought several senior executives of the FTC which previously made public comments on the media”.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a Techcrunch email asking him if he intended to appeal.

Whatever the legal result, X proceedings have already had a significant effect on targeted organizations, with the staff of media issues (one of the dismissed researchers is now Run for congress), while the World Federation of Advertisers has closed its brand security program and would have complained about drained finances.

Sooknanan said that the FTC investigation had also had its “planned effect”, which prompted the media issues to decide “to continue certain stories about the FTC, President Ferguson and Mr. Musk”.