A seeming front runner for Trumps FCC has a plan to flat line free speech and murder the open internet among other things.
Notice: We understand that the collapse of America can be distressing to some American readers, but help is available. If you are suffering from a mental health crisis, you can call 988 to talk to someone.
Earlier this week, we woke up to the reality that the worst case scenario has happened in the US. Trump has not only won the presidency, but has also captured unlimited power between taking the House, the Senate, is above the law as per the US Supreme Court, and already controls the US Supreme court. For many, the development signals to the world that America is entering the dark ages of chaos and destruction and that it is no longer the leader of the free world.
While it is only a matter of time before we find out how bad things are going to get, we are already starting to get a sense of what a Trump presidency is going to look like. What we’re learning is terrifying, but not really surprising given that Trump and his sycophants have long promised these changes (re: “He said he was gonna!”). After all, they did spell out their desires through Project 2025 – something the mainstream media worked hard to pretend doesn’t exist.
So, now that America is slipping into totalitarianism, the real question is, what exactly does this look like in practice? We know what they want to unleash on America, what steps are being made to make this dictatorship a reality? As it turns out, we are already starting to see this vision through an apparent front runner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). That front runner being mentioned is Brendan Carr. Carr was a writer for Project 2025 on specifically how they intend on breaking the free and open internet down.
According to Arstechnica, Carr is a huge critic of network neutrality, a critical component in keeping the free and open internet free from meddling by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This includes preventing ISPs from demanding ransom payments from smaller websites in order to remain accessible to the user (or not get slowed down) and ripping off consumers by taking advantage of their monopolistic powers they have. So, it’s likely he’ll be gunning to, among other things, killing the free and open internet.
Another major target by Carr is online free speech. From Arstechnica:
On Big Tech, Carr wants to implement Trump’s 2020 plan to crack down on social media websites for alleged anti-conservative bias. At the time, Trump formally petitioned the FCC to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in a way that would limit social media platforms’ legal protections for hosting third-party content when the platforms take down content they consider objectionable.
Obviously, the charge of “anti-conservative bias” has long been a myth because the reality is that social media has heavy pro-conservative bias. So, what the push is likely going to be is to make it illegal to moderate anyone who is harassing or threatening others so long as they are a right wing extremist. This while silencing anyone who dares to disagree with anything the far right and Trump is pushing for.
Carr has also doubled down on cracking down on journalism of any kind that dares to criticize Trump:
On November 2, Carr claimed that NBC was trying to evade the Equal Time rule by putting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live. “The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct—a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns,” Carr wrote.
Carr later told Fox News that “all remedies should be on the table,” including “license revocations.”
“One commissioner standing alone, there’s no real consequence that I can impose at this point,” he said. “You need the FCC chairperson or at least three commissioners on the FCC to agree to take action. We’ll see if we end up there with this commission or otherwise.”
Another push by Carr is to force online platforms to pay ISPs for no real reason. This while shovelling money to known right wing extremist, Elon Musk:
The fund has long been paid for by telecom companies, which generally pass the cost on to consumers on their telephone bills. “While Big Tech derives tremendous value from the federal government’s universal service investments—using those federally supported networks to deliver their products and realize significant profits—these large corporations have avoided paying a fair share into the program,” Carr wrote.
The Biden administration urged Europe to reject a similar idea last year, saying that payments from online platforms to ISPs would “distort competition” and undermine net neutrality. The European plan was also criticized by Meta, Google, Netflix, and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). The group of regulators from European countries said it found no evidence of “free-riding” by tech companies or evidence that ISPs’ costs weren’t fully covered.
If he becomes chair, Carr would have significant influence over which companies get money from the Universal Service Fund. Carr was angry about the FCC decision to reject Starlink’s application to receive $885.51 million in broadband funding.
The grant was tentatively awarded during Pai’s tenure but canceled in a 2022 ruling that called Starlink a “nascent LEO [low Earth orbit] satellite technology” with “recognized capacity constraints.” The Biden-era FCC had earlier pointed out that Pai’s system for choosing grant winners led to “complaints that the program was poised to fund broadband to parking lots and well-served urban areas.”
So, basically do favours to known allies of the fascist movement while punishing others in the process. It’s basically a naked message to the business community that the corruption is on within government more than ever before. This, of course, doesn’t even get into the push to crack down on anything considered “pornographic” (and that definition is extremely wide thanks to, among other things, the impending crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community).
Now, it’s worth pointing out that Carr is not the Chair yet, but he is gunning for that position. We’ll have to see if he gets that position and starts pushing this radical agenda. If that starts happening, expect more spikes for VPN searches on Google. When I earlier said that anything goes with this administration, I wasn’t joking.
Notice: We understand that the collapse of America can be distressing to some American readers, but help is available. If you are suffering from a mental health crisis, you can call 988 to talk to someone.
