Apple News bias: ex-liberal mag editor tasked to curate stories for iPhone users

Critics are taking a chunk out of the Apple Information app, elevating questions on who oversees its alleged bias.

A current examine discovered that Apple Information, the favored information aggregator that comes pre-installed on each iPhone in America, overwhelmingly promotes content material from liberal media.

In 2017, Apple tapped liberal journal veteran Lauren Kern because the app’s editor-in-chief.

Kern, who beforehand served as editor-in-chief of New York Journal and deputy editor of New York Occasions Journal, was a part of a superb 2018 article from The New York Occasions reporting that she leads a gaggle of former journalists who “choose the information that tens of tens of millions of individuals will learn.”

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The Apple Information utility that comes pre-installed on all iPhones is below scrutiny for its alleged political bias. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)

“We put a lot care and a focus into our curation,” Kern told the Occasions in 2018. “It is seen by lots of people, and we take that accountability very significantly.”

As a result of monumental attain of the Apple Information app, the Occasions reported that Kern is “quietly turning into one of the highly effective figures in English-language media.” In 2020, Apple boasted that its app “attracts greater than 100 million month-to-month energetic customers within the US, UK, Australia and Canada.”

The Occasions said that Apple Information has “up to now averted controversy” as a result of it makes use of folks like Kern to curate the information, whereas its Silicon Valley friends relied on machines and algorithms. However practically eight years later, Kern and Apple Information had been hit with an investigation that questioned their impartiality.

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The FTC despatched a letter to Apple alleging allegations of bias with its Apple Information curation utility. (CFOTO/Future Launch through Getty Photos)

The Media Analysis Middle, a conservative watchdog group, investigated the content material of Apple Information in January. Of the 620 tales shared between January 1 and 31, 440 had been from media shops perceived to be left-leaning, whereas 180 had been from centrist media shops. Based on the analysis, Zero comes from right-oriented shops.

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The investigation caught the eye of Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who despatched a letter to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook dinner warning that Apple Information might violate Part 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or misleading acts or practices.

“The First Modification protects the speech of Huge Tech corporations. However the First Modification has by no means prolonged its safety to materials misrepresentations to shoppers, nor does it immunize audio system in opposition to conduct that Congress has deemed unfair below the FTC Act, even when that conduct entails speech,” Ferguson informed Cook dinner.

Apple and Kern didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Federal Commerce Fee Chairman Andrew Ferguson advised that Apple could also be violating the FTC regulation. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Photos)

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