Federal Communications Commission chairman nominee Brendan Carr has emphasized his intention to target a “censorship cartel” of Big Tech and advertisers that he says threatens free speech online.
Carr, 45, one of the FCC's two Republican commissioners, concluded that the independent agency must “restore Americans' right to free speech.”
“Fighting technology censorship will be one of my top priorities,” Carr said on Fox News' “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Facebook and other companies were part of a censorship cartel that worked with advertisers,” he said.
“They have worked with government authorities to censor the free speech rights of ordinary Americans,” he added.
“This has to stop because censorship isn't just about stopping words. It's about stopping ideas. America is a nation of founders, of people who pushed boundaries and pushed frontiers. country,” he told host Maria Bartiromo.
“When you silence speech, you silence ideas,” Carr said. He echoed similar sentiments shortly after President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate him to lead the FCC.
The FCC oversees federal regulation of interstate and international communications. In addition to the committee chair, it is composed of two Democratic committee members and two Republican committee members.
“We need to unleash American prosperity again. That's why you're seeing a change in the mood of this country because people know that President Trump is trying to lead America back to greatness. “This is because the government will no longer be in control, and the economy will once again prosper.”
Before President Trump announced his intention to lead the FCC, Carr publicly criticized CBS News for not releasing the full text of his “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
He also slammed NBC's “Saturday Night Live,” which Harris hosted near the eve of the election, calling it a “clear and blatant effort” to circumvent the equal time rule. . NBC then gave President Trump free airtime and ran some of his ads during NASCAR races and NFL broadcasts.
Last week, President Trump, 78, met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Mar-a-Lago. The Facebook founder is trying to mend fences with the right after a number of controversial decisions, including censoring coronavirus content and suppressing the Post's coverage of Hunter Biden's laptop.
“I have no insight into that,” Carr said of the meeting. “I hope Mark Zuckerberg continues to move towards embracing free speech.”
Conservatives have previously slammed the content moderation policies of both Facebook and Elon Musk's X.
Much to the chagrin of many on the left, the richest man in the world bought X (then called Twitter) in 2022, which led to many prominent liberals fleeing the platform. I decided to do it.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) was not among them, a move that Carr praised and appealed to fellow progressives not to join the exodus.
“I think Mr. Ro Khanna is right,” he said. “Freedom of speech, diversity of opinion, these are the foundations of democracy. And across the media, trust is currently at an all-time low.”
Carr also lavished praise on President Trump and the transition team's staffing decisions for the incoming administration, saying, “We're really making a fuss about this selection.”
