Trump names Big Tech critic Brendan Carr Federal Communications Commission head

President-elect Donald Trump will tap Brendan Carr, a critic of the Biden administration’s telecom policies and Big Tech, as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he said in a statement on Sunday.

Carr, 45, is currently the top Republican on the FCC, the independent agency that regulates telecommunications.

He has been a harsh critic of the FCC’s decision not to finalise nearly $900 million in broadband subsidies for Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite internet unit Starlink, as well as the Commerce Department’s $42 billion broadband infrastructure program and President Joe Biden’s spectrum policy.

Last week, Carr wrote to Meta’s Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, Apple and Microsoft, saying they had taken steps to censor Americans. Carr said on Sunday the FCC must “restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”

Carr criticised NBC for letting Harris appear on “Saturday Night Live” just before the election.

Trump in his first term called on the FCC to revoke broadcast licences, prompting then FCC Chair Ajit Pai to reject the idea, saying “the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a licence of a broadcast station based on the content.”

The FCC issues eight-year licences to individual broadcast stations, not to broadcast networks.

In 2022, Carr, a strong critic of China, became the first FCC commissioner to visit Taiwan. He has been an advocate of the FCC’s hard line on Chinese telecom companies.

Carr was a strong opponent of the FCC’s decision in April to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules that were repealed during the first Trump administration. The Biden FCC rules were put on hold by a federal appeals court.

Trump nominated Carr to the FCC during in his first administration in January, 2017, after he had served as the FCC’s general counsel.

The incoming administration will need to nominate a Republican to fill a seat on the five-member commission before it can take full control of the agency.

Carr “is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement.