Trump’s FCC Chair Pick Wants to ‘Dismantle’ Big Tech’s ‘Censorship Cartel’

Trump’s FCC Chair Pick Wants to ‘Dismantle’ Big Tech’s ‘Censorship Cartel’

President-elect Donald Trump is continuing his fast-paced appointment process by naming Brendan Carr, the current senior Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency’s new chairman.

It is another excellent choice, as Carr plans to target the ‘censorship cartel‘ imposed by major tech companies in league with big government bureaucrats.

Brendan Carr, the incoming Federal Communications Commission Chairman, has demanded answers from Big Tech firms about their involvement in what he described as an “censorship cartel” to suppress speech with which they disagreed.

Carr – who President-elect Trump dubbed a “warrior for free speech” on Sunday as he announced him as his pick to lead the agency – sent letters to Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook.

The letters were dated Nov. 13, days before Trump revealed his promotion from the FCC’s senior Republican commissioner to permanent chairman.

The Republican specifically sought information about the firms’ dealings with NewsGuard – a for-profit “fact-checking” firm that has run afoul of Congressional Republicans for allegedly targeting conservative outlets by labeling them as more “risky” than liberal outlets.

Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel.

The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with “fact checking” groups & ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives.

The censorship cartel must be dismantled. pic.twitter.com/Xf0sEYOUfv

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 15, 2024

Carr also plans to deprioritize the agency’s Diversity-Equity-Inclusion policy.

Brendan Carr, who currently serves as the senior Republican member of the FCC, posted a snippet of the agency’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2025 on X, which stated that its second-highest strategic goal is promoting DEI.

“The FCC’s most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency’s second highest [sic] strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI,” Carr wrote.

The only strategic goal listed before promoting DEI was pursuing a 100% broadband policy.

I am looking forward to the mainstream media asserting Carr is unqualified to hold this position. Carr’s career at the FCC began in 2012 when he joined as a legal advisor. He was then General Counsel from 2017 until he was appointed a commissioner later that year. His legal experience includes over six years at Wiley Rein LLP, a prominent law firm specializing in telecommunications and regulatory issues.

As a commissioner, Carr has been recognized for his efforts to promote high-speed wireless internet access, particularly in rural areas. He has also advocated for reducing regulatory burdens on smaller broadcasters while increasing scrutiny on larger tech companies. It is clear that he understands the needs of local broadcasters and the challenges posed by major technology firms.

Carr’s selection is on-brand for Trump 2.0’s priorities, particularly regarding technology regulation and free speech advocacy.

The National Association of Broadcasters praised Carr as “a steadfast leader in holding Big Tech accountable and supporting policies that will allow local broadcast stations to better compete with these behemoths and thrive.”

Carr has called on the FCC to loosen rules that limit the number of radio and TV stations a company can own in a single market and criticized the Biden FCC’s digital discrimination rule arguing it give “the federal government a roving mandate to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the internet functions.”

The FCC issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not to broadcast networks.

In 2022, Carr, a strong critic of China, became the first FCC commissioner to visit Taiwan. He has been an advocate of the FCC’s hard line on Chinese telecom companies.

However, I must admit, I am looking forward to all the progressive head explosions over the fact that wrote a chapter about the agency in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a conservative presidency.

…Project 2025 was a contentious political issue in the presidential campaign. Democrats argued that the document is Trump’s true policy plan and he only distanced himself from it before the election because many of the policies are unpopular with voters.

Trump repeatedly tried to distance himself from Project 2025, saying he is unfamiliar with the policies and has “nothing to do” with them. However, his own platform shares broad policy similarities with the document.

Here are those “contentious” policies promoted by Carr.

Here are the 4 priorities for the FCC identified by Trump's pick for FCC Chair @BrendanCarrFCC in Project 2025 blueprint:
* Reining in Big Tech.
* Promoting National Security.
* Unleashing Economic Prosperity.
* Assuring FCC Accountability and Good Governance. pic.twitter.com/6tpmLlJZ14

— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) November 19, 2024

Personally, I am looking forward to less Newsguard and more free speech starting in 2025.

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