Veteran Republican Brendan Carr, President-elect Trump's pick to chair the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is eager to fight with the censors that for too long have discriminated against conservative voices online.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Carr explained how he plans to hit the ground running the moment Trump is reinstalled into the White House on January 20.
"Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me," Carr said.
"We need to restore Americans' right to free speech ... you mentioned Facebook and other companies. They've been part of a censorship cartel that has worked with advertisers. They've worked with government officials to censor the free speech rights of everyday Americans. That's got to end."
"America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity again."
Incoming FCC Chairman @BrendanCarrFCC: "Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me."
"America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity, again." pic.twitter.com/wsXboFEMly
— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) December 1, 2024
(Related: Have you checked out the list of all of Trump's nominees thus far?)
Section 230 of Communications Decency Act "may be on the line"
Back in November, Carr spoke out against the tech industry, accusing tech companies of participating in a "censorship cartel that included not only technology and social media companies but advertising, marketing, and so-called 'fact-checking' organizations as well as the Biden-Harris administration itself."
"The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability," he added.
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 spoke directly to the Section 230 provisions of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that have created a loophole for Big Tech to play both content "publisher" versus content "provider," depending on the situation, in order to suit its own interests.
"As you know, Big Tech's prized liability shield, Section 230, is codified in the Communications Act, which the FCC administers," Carr said at the time. "As relevant here, Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, 'in good faith.'"
"The censorship cartel must be dismantled."
One of the biggest censorship offenders is Google, which many want to see fully investigated. Someone on X / Twitter wrote that Google is "changing their algorithm to hide certain news stor[ies] ... Especially during the campaign," and that the incoming Trump administration needs to look into this.
"It's not just the suppression of views," someone interjected in the comments. "It's the unwarranted promotion of others in an effort to push an agenda. You'd think just by looking at advertising over the past four years that 90% of America is black and gay."
Another wrote that if Republicans like Carr are truly serious about addressing systemic censorship, then they need to create and pass "a digital bill of rights."
"A few simple tweaks to Section 230 which protects companies like Facebook from being sued for libel for comments made by users. If they are to enjoy that protection, they cannot act like publishers and decide what can be posted under vague 'community guidelines.'"
"If a law is broken, they report to the police. Otherwise, they must not promote one ideology over another or censor posts they don't like."
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