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Federal Communications Commission chairman designee Brendan Carr stressed his intent to target the “censorship cartel” of Big Tech and advertisers he claims are threatening free speech online.
Carr, 45, one of two Republican commissioners on the FCC, concluded that the independent agency needs to “restore Americans’ right to free speech.”
“Combating tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me,” Carr told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Facebook and other companies — they have been part of a censorship cartel that have worked with advertisers,” he said.
“They have worked with government officials to censor the free speech rights of everyday Americans,” he added.
“That’s got to end because censorship isn’t just about stopping words. It’s about stopping ideas. America is a country of founders, of people that have pushed boundaries, pushed frontiers,” he told host Maria Bartiromo
Carr emphasized that “when you silence speech, you silence ideas.” He had conveyed a similar sentiment shortly after President-elect Donald Trump announced him as his pick to helm the FCC.
The FCC oversees federal regulations of interstate and international communications. It is composed of two Democratic and two Republican commissioners in addition to the chair.
“We need to unleash America’s prosperity again. That’s why you feel this vibe-shifting in the country, where people know President Trump is about to lead another great American comeback, because this wet blanket of government control is going away and our economy is going to flourish again,” he added.
Prior to Trump unveiling his intent to tap him to helm the FCC, Carr publicly criticized CBS News for not releasing the full transcript of the “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
He also lashed out at NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” for hosting Harris near election eve, which he described as a “clear and blatant effort” to circumvent the Equal Time rule. NBC later gave Trump free airtime and put up some of his ads during a NASCAR race and NFL coverage.
Last week, Trump, 78, met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Mar-a-Lago as the Facebook founder seeks to mend fences with the right after a number of controversial decisions like censoring COVID content and suppressing The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop coverage.
“I don’t have any insight into that,” Carr said of that meeting. “Hopefully, Mark Zuckerberg continues to move towards this embrace of freedom of speech.”
Conservatives had previously railed against content moderation policies on both Facebook and Elon Musk’s X.
The world’s richest man purchased X (then called Twitter) in 2022 — much to the chagrin of many on the left — which prompted a number of prominent liberals to flee the platform.
Not among them was Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who urged his fellow progressives against joining the exodus, a move Carr spoke highly of.
“I think Ro Khanna is right about that,” he said. “Free speech, diversity of opinion, those are the bedrocks of democracy. And, look, when you look at the mass media in general right now, trust is at an all-time low.”
Carr also lavished praise on Trump and his transition team’s staffing decisions for the next administration, saying that they are “just knocking it out of the park with these picks.”