Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has demanded answers from Big Tech firms about their involvement in what he described as a “censorship cartel” to suppress speech with which they disagreed.
Carr — who President-elect Trump called a “free speech fighter” on Sunday as he announced him as his pick to lead the agency — sent letters to Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook.
The letters were dated Nov. 13, days before Trump revealed his promotion from top Republican FCC commissioner to permanent chairman.
The Republican specifically asked for information about the firms’ relationship with NewsGuard — a for-profit “fact-checking” firm that has come under fire from congressional Republicans for allegedly targeting conservative media by labeling them more “dangerous” than the media. liberal.
“Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others have played central roles in the censorship cartel,” Carr wrote in an X post last Friday alongside the letter. The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with ‘fact checking’ groups and ad agencies helped enforce biased stories.
Big Tech executives were told to submit responses to the FCC by Dec. 10 about which of their products or services partner with NewsGuard and whether they require online customers to rely on NewsGuard when using their services.
Carr’s investigation could have implications for the future of Section 230 — the controversial statute that protects companies from being held liable for third-party content posted on their platforms.
In his letter, Carr notes that Section 230 protections only apply if companies are operating “in good faith.”
The Trump appointee referred to an “ongoing investigation” by the House Oversight Committee to NewsGuard.
NewsGuard’s advisory board includes at least one member who “signed on to the now-infamous October 2020 letter from former intelligence community officials blasting the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation — a letter that itself sparked a wave of censorship,” Carr added. .
NewsGuard denied wrongdoing and repudiated Carr’s letter in a lengthy statement, asserting that her work “does not involve censorship or blocking of speech at all.”
“The main claims in the letter to NewsGuard are false, citing unreliable sources,” NewsGuard said in a statement.
For companies like Google and Meta that also offer advertising services, Carr is also seeking information on whether they use NewsGuard or any “media monitoring or fact-checking services” as part of their customer relationships.
Carr alleged that Big Tech firms were complicit in an effort, along with so-called media watchdogs, to “de-money, demonetize and otherwise ostracize media and business news organizations that dared to deviate from an approved narrative “.
“This censorship cartel is an affront to Americans’ constitutional liberties and must be completely dismantled,” Carr added in the letter. Americans should be able to reclaim their right to free speech.”
Meta declined to comment on Carr’s letter, but the company emphasized that NewsGuard is not one of its fact-checking partners.
In August, Zuckerberg acknowledged in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that “senior officials in the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured” Meta to “censor” content related to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.
Zuckerberg added that he now thought Facebook was wrong to suppress The Post’s exclusive reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020.
Representatives for Google, Microsoft and Apple did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
Carr was first appointed as an FCC commissioner in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office. His current mandate runs until 2029.
“Commissioner Carr is a fighter for free speech and has fought against regulatory law that stifled Americans’ liberties and held back our economy,” Trump said in a statement announcing his election as chairman.
“It will end the regulatory onslaught that has crippled America’s Job Creators and Innovators and ensure the FCC delivers for rural America.”
Carr made headlines ahead of the 2024 election after he publicly criticized NBC’s decision to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to appear on “Saturday Night Live” as a “clear and blatant attempt” to circumvent the Equal Time rule.
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