The Federal Trade Commission has removed a large set of business guidance blogs from its website, according to current and former FTC employees who spoke to WIRED under anonymity for fear of retaliation. As of Tuesday morning, more than 300 blogs were removed, including posts about artificial intelligence, privacy, Amazon, Microsoft, and consumer protection expectations for companies.
The change matters because these posts were not just agency commentary. They explained how businesses could interpret enforcement actions and avoid conduct the FTC viewed as unfair, deceptive, or otherwise risky under consumer protection rules.
What disappeared from the FTC website
According to the employees who spoke to WIRED, the FTC page that hosted business-related blogs and guidance no longer includes information published during former president Joe Biden’s administration. The removed material covered four years’ worth of guidance.
Those blogs included advice aimed at big tech companies and other businesses building products that collect data, use artificial intelligence, or serve children and families. In practical terms, the posts gave companies examples of behavior that could draw scrutiny from the FTC.
Several deleted posts were tied to high-profile matters under former chair Lina Khan. The source article identifies guidance connected to Amazon, Ring security camera products, Microsoft Xbox, children’s data, chatbots, and AI systems designed around consumer trust.
Why the Amazon and Microsoft posts stood out
One removed blog was titled “Hey, Alexa! What are you doing with my data?” It explained how, according to two FTC complaints, Amazon and its Ring security camera products allegedly leveraged sensitive consumer data to train Amazon’s algorithms. Amazon disagreed with the FTC’s claims.
The post also offered guidance for companies operating similar products and services. That is the part with broader industry impact: the blog connected an enforcement case to practical expectations for other businesses handling sensitive consumer data.
Another deleted post was titled “$20 million FTC settlement addresses Microsoft Xbox illegal collection of kids’ data: A game changer for COPPA compliance.” It used the 2023 Microsoft settlement as an example for companies trying to follow the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
That settlement followed allegations by the FTC that Microsoft obtained data from children using Xbox systems without the consent of their parents or guardians. The removed guidance therefore concerned both children’s privacy and how technology platforms should structure compliance when younger users are involved.
The AI guidance carried a wider warning
The removals also included AI-related guidance. One deleted FTC blog, “The Luring Test: AI and the engineering of consumer trust,” outlined how businesses could avoid creating chatbots that violate the FTC Act’s rules against unfair or deceptive products.
That post had received an award in 2023 for “excellent descriptions of artificial intelligence.” Its removal is notable because the post addressed a fast-moving area where businesses often look for concrete examples of what regulators expect.
Without adding new legal claims, the basic compliance issue is clear from the source: guidance posts translate enforcement actions into usable warnings for industry. When those explanations vanish from the agency’s current guidance page, companies lose a public reference point for how the FTC had described risk in areas such as AI, data collection, and children’s privacy.
“In terms of the message to industry on what our compliance expectations were, which is in some ways the most important part of enforcement action, they are trying to just erase those from history,” a source familiar tells WIRED.
Records concerns and a shift in priorities
A former FTC official told WIRED that removing blogs raises serious compliance concerns under the Federal Records Act and the Open Government Data Act. The same source said FTC leadership during the Biden administration would place “warning” labels above previous administrations’ public decisions it no longer agreed with, because removal itself was feared to violate the law.
The FTC did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The removals happened after President Donald Trump designated Andrew Ferguson to replace Khan as FTC chair in January. Ferguson has said he would use his authority against big tech companies, but his focus differs from Khan’s. The source article says Ferguson’s criticisms center on Republican party allegations that social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, censor conservative speech online.
Before being selected as chair, Ferguson told Trump that his vision for the agency also included rolling back Biden-era regulations on artificial intelligence and tougher merger standards, The New York Times reported in December.
In an interview with CNBC last week, Ferguson argued that content moderation could amount to an antitrust violation. “If companies are degrading their product quality by kicking people off because they hold particular views, that could be an indication that there's a competition problem,” he said.
What the removals signal for tech companies
The Trump administration has received broad support from the tech industry. Amazon and Meta, along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, donated to Trump’s inauguration fund. Elon Musk and David Sacks are officially advising the administration, and Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employs technologists sourced from Musk’s tech companies.
Federal agencies such as the General Services Administration have already started to roll out AI products like GSAi, a general-purpose government chatbot. Against that backdrop, the deleted FTC blogs remove public-facing guidance on how AI products, data collection, and privacy practices may be judged by the agency.
Sources speaking with WIRED on Tuesday claimed that tech companies are the only groups who benefit from the removal of these blogs. One source familiar with the issue framed the stakes around data practices, AI training, and whether the administration will reduce pressure on those issues while increasing attention to censorship claims.
“They are talking a big game on censorship. But at the end of the day, the thing that really hits these companies’ bottom line is what data they can collect, how they can use that data, whether they can train their AI models on that data, and if this administration is planning to take the foot off the gas there while stepping up its work on censorship,” the source familiar alleges. “I think that's a change big tech would be very happy with.”
For businesses, the core takeaway is that FTC guidance can shape compliance even when it is written as a blog post. For consumers, the removed posts involved issues that touch daily technology use: smart devices, security cameras, gaming systems, chatbots, children’s data, and AI products built on personal information.