24/6/2020 Jonathan Newton/Pool via REUTERS
United States President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he has chosen Brendan Carr, a critic of the Biden administration’s telecommunications policies and Big Tech, as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Carr, 45, is currently the top Republican at the FCC, the independent agency that regulates telecommunications.
He has been sharply critical of the FCC’s decision not to finalize nearly $900 million in broadband subsidies for Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite internet unit Starlink, as well as the $42 billion broadband infrastructure program. of the Department of Commerce and the policies of US President Joe Biden.
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Last week, Carr wrote to Facebook, Meta, Google, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft saying they had taken steps to censor Americans.
Carr said Sunday that the FCC needs to “restore free speech rights to ordinary Americans.”
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said Sunday that Carr’s letter amounted to “a regulatory body implicitly threatening private companies because of his speech.” Trump’s FCC is prepared to become the Federal Censorship Commission,” according to him.
