FCC commissioner blasts Trump administration censorship policies
When Donald Trump was on the campaign trail, he argued that coordination by the Biden administration and social media companies on disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and elections amounted to political censorship. He claimed that supposed censorship stifled the free and unencumbered exchange of ideas essential to democracy, and posed a clear threat to the First Amendment.
“After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America,” Trump said on Inauguration Day in January.
Now, just four months into Trump’s second term, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission is making the case that the president and his administration has been seeking to censor and control content “before day one” of his presidency.
Speaking Friday at an event hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Anna Gomez, one of two Democrat-appointed commissioners on the FCC, warned that the agency has gone far off track in its mission and is becoming a media propaganda enforcer for the Trump administration.
“The First Amendment has protected our fundamental right to freely speak and to hold power to account since 1791,” Gomez said. “It is foundational to our democracy and yet today, the greatest threat to that freedom is coming from our own government.”
Gomez pointed to a range of policy actions taken by the FCC under Trump and new chair Brendan Carr, such as using the agency’s broadcast licensing authorities to chill free speech. She argued that these actions are “antithetical” to the agency’s mission, its legal authority, and the First Amendment.
“This FCC has made clear that it will go after any news outlet that dares to report the truth, if that truth is unfavorable or inconvenient to this administration,” Gomez said.
Carr, a Republican and vocal critic of the Biden administration’s approach to content moderation, has launched investigations into news outlets over their editorial decisions and warned tech companies against using third-party services like “NewsGuard” that rate news reliability. He has also threatened to remove Section 230 protections from tech companies if, in his view, they don’t moderate political content “in good faith.”
Legal experts have told CyberScoop that these activities all appear to be straightforward examples of speech that’s clearly protected under the First Amendment. In contrast to claims levied by Carr and Trump administration allies, the Supreme Court has largely upheld the freedom of tech companies to moderate content and ruled that Biden administration’s discussions with social media companies were within constitutional limits and not coercive.
Gomez called Carr’s approach “dangerous” and said “unprecedented actions” had been taken “by an independent government regulator.”
It’s not just Gomez or Democrats making that argument, as libertarian news outlets like Reason Magazine have referred to Carr as “our Censor in Chief” when describing his record under the Trump administration.
Numerous media outlets and whistleblowers confirm Gomez’s account of the FCC under Carr and the broader Trump administration, revealing an obsession with policing language. At many agencies, work has slowed as employees were reassigned to remove any mention of “diversity” or “equity” from federal materials, even when those phrases were unrelated to the issues.
Meanwhile, the administration has broken with modern precedent to fire only Democratic members of federal agencies, advisory boards and commissions, even from bipartisan bodies like the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Republicans on the Hill are currently working to confirm Olivia Trusty, a former GOP congressional staffer, as an FCC commissioner. Agency observers worry that once Trusty is confirmed — and Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks retires this year — Trump will move to leave only Republicans on the panel.
Gomez made it clear that she would not bend to the administration’s pressure, even if it results in her dismissal.
“I refuse to stay quiet while the government chips away at fundamental rights by weaponizing our regulatory authority,” Gomez said. “This is how I’m using my voice, and I encourage you to use yours, too. And if I’m removed from my seat on the commission, let it be said plainly: “It wasn’t because I failed to do my job, it was because I insisted on it.”
