Hi John,

Last week, Trump announced his pick for chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),¹ a role currently held by anti-trust champion and Big Tech public enemy number one Lina Khan.² This is bad news for internet freedom advocates everywhere. Read more then pitch in if you can—this is going to be a long fight.

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In a leaked memo,³ Trump’s pick Andrew Ferguson vows to reverse Khan’s “war on mergers,” fight “wokeness,” and target the “trans agenda.” And it gets worse– as a current FTC commissioner, Ferguson would become chair on day 1 of the Trump administration, no Senate confirmation needed.

This worries us. The FTC is responsible for keeping Big Tech companies like Amazon and Meta in check, overseeing the growing use of AI, and fighting for everyday internet users’ rights. Instead, Trump wants to weaponize the FTC against queer and trans people, covering with weak lip service to “reigning in Big Tech.” We deserve an FTC working in our interest.

With Ferguson at the helm, the FTC could do major damage to anti-trust wins and put our most marginalized communities at risk. We’re ready to jump into action, but we need your support. Will you make a gift of any size to fuel the uphill battle against Trump’s FTC in the new year?

DONATE NOW

Here’s how we’ll use your support:

• Continue our fight against the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a censorship bill that empowers the FTC to target queer and trans people online under the guise of “child safety.”⁴

• Run targeted campaigns to hold Big Tech companies accountable for their spying and censorship. If the FTC won’t do it, we’ll have to do it ourselves.

• Expand our anti-censorship coalition to bring even more vulnerable groups and advocacy organizations into the fight against online censorship by Trump’s FTC and beyond. We’re stronger together.⁵

Thanks for everything you do, John. To keep up with this fight and more, join our urgent actions Signal chat⁶ or sign up for our newsletter.⁷

Solidarity always,
Sarah Philips at Fight for the Future

Footnotes:

1. Common Dreams: https://www.commondreams.org/news/andrew-ferguson-ftc

2. Keep Khan: https://www.keepkhan.com/

3. Punchbowl: https://punchbowl.news/article/tech/ftc-commissioner-artificial-intelligence-trans-care/

4. Incoming FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson wants to throw trans people under the bus. KOSA would help him do that: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2024-12-11-incoming-ftc-chair-andrew-ferguson-wants-to-throw-trans-people-under-the-bus-kosa-would-help-him-do-that/

5. How We Fight for the Future in 2025: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/2025

6. Urgent Actions Signal Chat: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/signal

7. Touch Grass Newsletter: https://touchgrass.fightforthefuture.org/