FTC Removes Lena Khan-Era Posts About Risks of AI and Open Source

The Federal Trade Commission removed three blog posts from Lina Khan– The era that addressed open source AI and the risks of AI to consumers, according to Wired report.

One post, “On Open Weights Foundation Models,” was published on July 10, 2024. Another, “Consumers Express Concerns About AI,” was published in October 2023. A third article, authored by Khan’s team, was published on January 3, 2025, titled “AI and the Risk of Consumer Harm.” That post noted that the FTC was “considering AI’s potential for real-world harm — from incentivizing commercial surveillance to enabling fraud and impersonation to perpetuating unlawful discrimination.”

TechCrunch has reached out to the FTC to find out why the posts were removed. Khan declined to comment.

These takedowns are part of a broader pattern under the Trump administration, which has begun issuing executive orders directing federal agencies to remove or moderate large amounts of government content.

And after Trump’s inauguration as well Install a new header From the Federal Trade Commission, he fired several FTC commissioners, and installed leadership that focused less on Khan’s aggressive antitrust agenda and more on deregulating Big Tech. In September, new FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson Submitted Recommendations to eliminate or revise anticompetitive regulations across the entire federal government.

Blog posts recently removed by the FTC, which focused on consumer harm, appear to be consistent with that The Trump administration’s artificial intelligence action plan. This plan reduced its focus on safety and guardrails, favoring instead rapid growth and competition with China. However, the Trump administration has been vocal about supporting open source initiatives.

“I was shocked to see Andrew Ferguson leading the FTC out of line with the Trump White House on this market reference,” Douglas Farrar, former FTC public affairs director, told TechCrunch.

This is not the first time this administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has removed content. In March, Wired reported The Federal Trade Commission removed about 300 posts related to artificial intelligence, consumer protection, and lawsuits filed by the agency against technology companies such as Amazon and Microsoft.

While hundreds of blog posts from Khan’s tenure and before remain with the agency Technology Office BlogFerguson’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has not made any posts on the site yet, despite the fast pace of the AI ​​race, which has led to numerous business mergers and acquisitions — including acquisitive hiring — that could be considered anticompetitive.

The FTC’s blog culling follows the Trump administration’s removal or modification of thousands of government web pages and data sets, especially diversity-related content; Equity and inclusion; sexual identity; public health; and environmental policy. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed data on topics ranging from chronic medical conditions to HIV/AIDS. The Department of Justice has removed studies related to hate crimes, as has the National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationRepeal the National Climate Assessment approved by Congress Reports.

Removing content — including blog posts from the FTC — could violate the Federal Records Act, which requires federal agencies to maintain records that properly document government activities, and the Open Government Data Act, which requires agencies to publish their data as “open data” by default.

The Biden administration’s FTC leadership placed warning labels on content posted during previous administrations that it disagreed with, according to Wired.