Meet Trump’s pick for FCC chairman

For weeks, there has been a flurry of appointments for Cabinet positions and senior White House officials in preparation for President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. One announcement in particular that caught my attention was his pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr.

Among the other transition headlines, the nomination of a current commissioner to lead an independent agency may not seem to be an above-the-fold news story. But the appointment of Carr is akin to an NFL general manager finding a franchise quarterback in the final rounds of the draft.

Carr represents a new kind of conservative policymaker who is willing to use both a carrot and a stick. On the one hand, he is committed to cutting red tape to enable new technologies like low earth orbit satellites to flourish, and on the other hand, he is fighting back against the censorship cartel of Big Tech. To that end, in a 2020 profile, The Verge called him “the man who could lead the GOP’s war on platform moderation.”

For decades, the FCC has been in the pocket of Big Tech, where behemoths like Google, Netflix, Apple, and others leveraged their influence and funded astroturfing “grassroots groups” to push net neutrality, an onerous regulatory regime specifically designed to trip up their competitors.

Most recently, we saw this conflation of Big Tech values and the work of the FCC in the agency’s approval of a digital discrimination order, which injected woke diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology into broadband infrastructure deployment efforts.

With Carr’s appointment, Big Tech interests are suddenly on the defensive. And Carr is not shy about where he stands. In a chapter of the Mandate for Leadership, aka “Project 2025,” he wrote a holistic approach to how the FCC can combat Big Tech censorship. As he explained, “[A] handful of corporations can shape everything from the information we consume to the places we shop. … They are not simply prevailing in the free market; they are taking advantage of a landscape that has been skewed—in many cases by the government—to favor their business models over those of their competitors.”

His approach includes using the FCC’s authority to interpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to eliminate “the expansive, non-textual immunities that courts have read into the statute.” Additionally, Carr proposes new transparency rules on Big Tech in a way similar to the compliance required of internet providers.

Another idea to hold these internet gatekeepers accountable is to “require that Big Tech begin to contribute a fair share” to the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. Currently, this $9 billion federal program to subsidize broadband adoption for lower-income Americans is paid for by the USF fee on everyone’s cellphone bill. Yes, that means you and I pay for Google and Apple to get new customers even though they have zero skin in the game. Carr has gained bipartisan traction with his proposal that the internet gatekeepers should contribute to the system.

Beyond the new leadership at the FCC, this new approach to tech is very appealing to the recently elected Republican majority in Congress, who are less beholden to libertarian dogma. For example, conservatives in Congress could follow the lead of numerous states that are considering making app stores verify ages and require parental consent for their underage users. The thinking is that app stores already have this information and should ensure that children are not purchasing harmful apps while empowering their parents to have more authority in their kids’ online lives.

The next several years are a unique opportunity for conservatives to rethink their relationship to tech. For years, we have watched how internet gatekeepers have used their power to silence dissenting voices or even debank individuals they disagree with ideologically. As churches are ever increasingly using online tools for ministry, the threats of censorship and suppression are very real.

It is not out of the realm of possibility that, without being checked, YouTube could one day censor the livestreaming of church services because the pastor preaches the Biblical truth about marriage. Or consider the idea that an app proclaiming a Biblical truth is no longer allowed on the Apple App Store (oh wait, that has already happened). One must wonder what will keep Square or some other financial service from blocking online giving to Christian pro-life ministries.

Now is the time to create safeguards that protect our religious liberty from emerging threats. President-elect Trump’s nomination of Brendan Carr as FCC chairman represents a sea change for conservatives and serves as an example of a new breed of leaders who have an opportunity to enact policy solutions at the FCC and in Congress to help protect speech online, empower parents, and preserve religious liberty.