GOP Senators Seek FCC Probe of Foreign Entities of Concern Ads on US Broadcasts
Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., asked the FCC Thursday to investigate foreign entities of concern (FEOC) “that broadcast on U.S. airwaves to determine if those entities pose a significant national security risk to the American public, and…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
use existing FCC authorities to deter future partnerships between FEOCs and television networks.” Banks and Scott cited a trio of ads for Chinese retail application Temu during the 2024 Super Bowl broadcast where the company “offered $15 million worth of giveaways on their questionable products. Temu is known to flood the United States with cheap goods produced by forced labor in [China] while exploiting the de-minimis loophole to avoid enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act.” U.S. broadcasters “should not platform [Chinese Communist Party] -linked companies who actively violate U.S. laws and do not comply with the same standards as U.S. manufacturers,” the senators said in a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. They noted that the U.S. Trade Representative’s office has repeatedly placed Temu's China-based parent company, Pinduoduo, on its notorious markets list for intellectual property theft, “copyright piracy, and selling counterfeit goods.”