(NewsNation) — Brendan Carr, Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for chair of the Federal Communications Commission, outlined what he wants to see happen at the agency in a chapter for Project 2025.
In a statement released after Trump won the election, Carr said “the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth” — all topics he touched on in Project 2025.
Project 2025 is a handbook from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, as well as other organizations, outlining what policies and practices they want the next presidential administration to implement.
While Trump disavowed the plan on the campaign trail, many people who have worked closely with the President-elect and helped shaped his last administration are involved with the plan. Along with Carr, there are several contributors and authors to Project 2025 whom Trump has chosen for his incoming administration including Russell Vought and Tom Homan.
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt maintained in a statement to the Associated Press that Trump did not have anything to do with Project 2025, and that his nominees and appointments are “whole-heartedly committed to President Trump’s agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.”
Carr was appointed to the FCC by Trump in 2017, and currently serves as one of its commissioners.
Brendan Carr wrote FCC chapter in Project 2025
The objectives Carr outlined in Project 2025 include “reining in big tech, protecting America’s national security, unleashing economic prosperity and holding government accountable.”
Those who Carr considers “big tech” are companies such as Google, Facebook and Youtube, who he says “attempt to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.”
“The FCC has an important role to play in addressing the threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” Carr wrote.
Section 230
Supporting legislation that “scraps Section 230’s current approach” is part of addressing big tech, Carr said. Section 230 is a section of the Communications Act of 1934 that makes it so online platforms are not held liable for content posted by their users, and so these companies can remove posts that violate their services’ standards.
In Project 2025, Carr advocated for the FCC working with Congress on “more fundamental Section 230 reforms that go beyond interpreting its current terms.” Some of the reforms Carr has in mind are ones that prohibit discrimination against what he said were core political viewpoints.
“Transparency rules” are another requirement Carr wants to impose on tech companies. The FCC presently has a rule that broadband providers have to provide disclosures about practices that shape Internet traffic. Carr in Project 2025 suggests that the FCC take a similar approach to “Big Tech,” and use Section 230 and the Consolidated Reporting Act as potential sources of authority.
National Security
Although Trump has said he opposes prohibiting TikTok in America, Carr wrote that he wants to address its “threat to U.S. national security.”
Saying the app “provides Beijing with an opportunity to run a foreign influence campaign by determining the news and information” provided to users, Carr said a new administration should ban TikTok.
TikTok says on its website that while its parent company ByteDance Ltd. was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, about 60% of it is owned by global investors, 20% by co-founders and 20% by employees “around the world.”
Earlier this year, Democratic President Joe Biden signed a law mandating ByteDance divest from TikTok or it would be banned.
Carr also wants the Trump administration to create a more “regular and timely process” for reviewing entities that have ties to China, and have the FCC do a better job of ensuring that a list of communications equipment and services that pose a risk to natural security stays up to date.
Loopholes allowing companies such as China Telecom that are banned from operating in the United States to continue providing very similar services in America should be closed, Carr wrote.
Economic Opportunity
When it comes to boosting economic prosperity, Carr wrote that one of the most “significant
technological developments of the past few years” has been low-earth orbit satellites like SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s StarLink and Amazon’s Kuiper.
“This technology can beam a reliable, high-speed Internet signal to nearly any part of the globe at a fraction of the cost of other technologies,” Carr wrote. “The FCC should expedite its work to support
this new technology by acting more quickly in its review and approval of applications to launch new satellites. Otherwise, the U.S. risks ceding space leadership to entities based in countries with more friendly regulatory environments.”
Reuters reports that Carr was a harsh critic of the FCC’s decision not to finalize nearly $900 million in broadband subsidies for Starlink. It’s a decision Reuters said the incoming FCC chair said would likely not be revisited.
Carr also wrote that the FCC and new administration need to work together to develop a national spectrum strategy identifying specific airwaves that can be freed for commercial wireless services.
Eliminating Regulations
As a “New Deal-era agency,” Carr wrote, the FCC’s history of regulation is heavy-handed rather than allowing “competition and market forces to produce optimal outcomes.”
Rapidly evolving market conditions favor eliminating these regulations, Carr argued, including many of the FCC’s media ownership rules.
“Ultimately, FCC reliance on competition and innovation is vital if the agency is to deliver optimal outcomes for the American public,” Carr wrote. “The FCC should engage in a serious top-to-bottom review of its regulations and take steps to rescind any that are overly cumbersome or outdated.”
Project 2025 ethics concerns
Democrats sent a letter this summer to the inspector general of the FCC saying that Carr contributing to Project 2025 violates ethics rules.
“Given the close ties between Project 2025, Trump, and his re-election campaign, it is deeply troubling that Commissioner Carr would use his official title and position to author part of the political playbook for a Republican presidential candidate,” the lawmakers wrote at the time, according to NewsNation partner The Hill.
Carr said in a statement to The Hill that he cleared his work on the project with the FCC’s ethics office before participating.
“I made clear to Heritage that I would only be participating in my personal capacity,” Carr said in the statement.
Reactions to Carr as potential FCC chair
Trump’s choice of the next head of the FCC drew praise and criticism.
Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron wrote in a statement that Carr has been campaigning for the job “with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”
“While styling himself as a free-speech champion, Carr refused to stand up when Trump threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of TV stations for daring to fact-check him during the campaign,” Aaron wrote.
The self-described “center-left tech industry policy” group “Chamber of Progress” chastised Carr’s agenda in Project 2025 as “extremist” and a way to attack content moderation.
“Brendan Carr has clearly stated that he plans to attack Section 230 and force online platforms to carry sludge,” Chamber of Progress Founder and CEO Adam Kovacevich said in a statement. “That’s why Democrats need to defend Section 230, which protects content moderation and keeps the Internet from becoming a cesspool.”
Calling Carr a “friend,” former FCC Chair Ajit Pai wrote on x that he was a “brilliant” adviser and general counsel for the agency, and has been a “superb commissioner.”
Current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issued a statement congratulating Carr after he was announced as Trump’s selection for the next FCC leader.
“From his time here, I am confident that Commissioner Carr is familiar with the staff, the responsibilities of this new role and the importance of continued U.S leadership in communications,” Rosenworcel wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
