FTC Removes Posts Critical of Amazon, Microsoft, and AI Companies

Meaning of the FTC Blog Deletions

• Several commenters see the mass removal of four years of FTC blog posts as a signal that the agency’s role as an independent regulator—especially over big tech—is being gutted.
• Others emphasize this is part of a broader pattern of erasing or rewriting recent history to normalize authoritarian moves.

Project 2025 and Conservative Antitrust Framing

• A shared excerpt from Project 2025 stresses “trusting markets” while vaguely acknowledging harms from tech–government collusion and mental health impacts.
• Some interpret this as cover language (“CYA”) that will justify weakening enforcement while pretending to be concerned about tech power.

Broader Dismantling of the Regulatory State

• Commenters connect the FTC purge to moves against other agencies (CFPB, USAID, Department of Education, research funding) as part of an intentional hollowing-out of government.
• There’s a strong theme of technofeudalism: large corporate owners capturing regulators, installing loyalists, and using the state to enrich themselves.

Corruption, Donors, and Parties

• Many argue both parties are effectively captured by wealthy donors; campaign money, not voter preferences, is seen as the true driver of policy.
• Some reject “both sides” framing, saying one party more brazenly ignores legal constraints, while the other routinely folds even when in power.

Legality, Records Retention, and FOIA

• Multiple comments question whether deleting the posts violates federal records-keeping laws; statutory penalties are cited.
• There’s debate over whether the data might still exist in internal archives, and whether FOIA requests or criminal referrals would be meaningful in practice.
• External archives (e.g., Wayback Machine) are noted as preserving content, but this is seen as no substitute for official compliance.

Media Framing and Scope

• One commenter calls the article’s headline clickbait for focusing on tech-critical posts when all posts in the period were deleted.
• Others counter that this actually understates the seriousness: the deletion is total, and the missing content is not on the current FTC blog.