Phoenix Center Says FCC Should Do Nothing Related to CDA Section 230
The Phoenix Center said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration is proving to be more focused on regulating industry than he promised during his campaign last year. “A disturbing number” of Trump appointees “are refusing to heed his message, targeting technology firms with aggressive antitrust enforcements, regulations, and even the sorts of jawboning coercion used during the Biden Administration to curtail constitutionally protected private speech,” the center's new report said.
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The FCC “now appears to want in on the tech regulation game,” it said. “It is widely expected that the FCC will launch a direct attack to tech companies’ bottom lines by initiating an inquiry to define the contours of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in direct contravention of both recent Supreme Court rulings and President Trump’s Executive Orders.”
The mandate of voters in the November election appeared clear, the center said. “Trump’s supporters want a less regulated economy, removing industry from the shackles of excessive and unnecessary regulatory restraint.”
Industry officials told us FCC Chairman Brendan Carr may not want to move forward on Section 230 enforcement but might feel White House pressure to do so. Carr said following the agency's May meeting that he didn’t have an update on Section 230. “It’s important, and one of the priorities that I’ve set out is working to restore free speech,” he said.
Commissioner Anna Gomez said she hopes the FCC does nothing on 230. “I don’t know what this commission is going to do,” she said, also following the commission meeting. “I don’t believe this FCC has any authority to act pursuant to Section 230. Congress did not actually direct the FCC to do anything in that section.” It would be difficult for any FCC action “to survive judicial scrutiny,” given recent rulings by SCOTUS, she said.