Ftc Removes Lina Khan-era Posts About Ai Risks And Open Source

The Federal Trade Commission has removed 3 blog posts from nan Lina Khan-era that addressed open-source AI and risks of AI to consumers, according to a Wired report.  

One post, titled “On Open-Weights Foundation Models,” was published July 10, 2024. Another, titled “Consumers Are Voicing Concerns About AI,” came retired successful October 2023. A third, authored by Khan’s staff, was published connected January 3, 2025 pinch nan title “AI and nan Risk of Consumer Harm.” That station noted nan FTC was “taking statement of AI’s imaginable for real-world instances of harm – from incentivizing commercialized surveillance to enabling fraud and impersonation to perpetuating forbidden discrimination.” 

TechCrunch has reached retired to nan FTC to study why nan posts were taken down. Khan declined to comment.  

These removals are portion of a broader shape nether nan Trump administration, which began issuing executive orders to nonstop national agencies to region aliases modify important amounts of authorities content.

After his inauguration, Trump besides installed a caller head of nan FTC and removed respective FTC commissioners, installing activity that focused little connected Khan’s fierce antitrust schedule and much connected deregulation for Big Tech. In September, caller FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson submitted recommendations for deleting aliases revising anticompetitive regulations crossed nan full national government.

The blog posts astir precocious removed by nan FTC, which focused connected user harm, don’t look to align pinch the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan. That scheme has reduced its attraction connected information and guardrails, alternatively favoring accelerated maturation and title pinch China. However, nan Trump management has been vocal astir backing open-source initiatives.  

Former FTC nationalist affairs head Douglas Farrar told TechCrunch: “I was shocked to spot nan Andrew Ferguson led FTC beryllium truthful retired of statement pinch nan Trump White House connected this awesome to nan market.”

This is not nan first clip this administration’s FTC has removed content. In March, Wired reported that nan FTC removed astir 300 posts related to AI, user protection, and nan agency’s lawsuits against tech companies for illustration Amazon and Microsoft.  

While hundreds of blog posts from Khan’s tenure and earlier stay connected nan agency’s Office of Technology Blog, Ferguson’s FTC has yet to people immoderate posts to nan site, contempt nan accelerated gait of nan AI race, which has resulted successful respective business mergers and acquisitions — including acqui-hires — that could beryllium seen arsenic anticompetitive.

The FTC blog culling follows nan Trump administration’s removal aliases modification of thousands of authorities web pages and datasets, peculiarly contented related to diversity; equity, and inclusion; gender identity; nationalist health; and biology policy. For example, nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed information connected topics ranging from chronic aesculapian conditions to HIV/AIDS. The Justice Department has removed studies connected dislike crimes, and nan National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken down nan congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment reports.  

The removal of contented – including nan blog posts from nan FTC – could break nan Federal Records Act, which requires national agencies to sphere records that decently archive authorities activities, and nan Open Government Data Act, which requires agencies to people their information arsenic “open data” by default. 

The Biden administration’s FTC activity placed informing labels connected contented published during erstwhile administrations that it disagreed with, according to Wired.