Carr Says CDA S. 230 Rules Aim to Push Back on Concentrations of Power
The goal of the FCC Communications Decency Act Section 230 proceeding is to “push back on concentrations of power” held by big tech companies, said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr during a virtual Lincoln Network Q&A Wednesday. Carr said his push for “light-touch regulation” represents a growing shift among conservatives, and existing conservative Washington think tanks are dominated by “abject corporatism” and opposition to all regulation. “My approach to net neutrality is consistent with my approach to big tech,” Carr said. “It’s easy to say ‘let's not change anything,’” Carr said. “This is not simply competition in a free market; this is taking advantage of a landscape skewed by law to favor their business model.”
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Carr’s calls for regulation of large tech companies are different from those of Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., because he’s not looking for drastic moves such as breaking them up, he said. The Ajit Pai FCC took the light-touch path on net neutrality rules for ISPs by incorporating FTC enforcement and transparency requirements, Carr said. “We need to be leaning on transparency to get the result we want.” Carr said he would like users to have control over whether their feeds are fact-checked.
Big tech is “unique” in terms of the power it currently wields without accompanying regulation, Carr said. “There’s nothing like it in terms of the power it holds over our daily lives.” The regulations he’s proposing won’t harm U.S. tech companies much or lead to domination of the space by Chinese tech companies, he said. If tech companies are going to have the benefits of the special liability protections Section 230 provides them, they should be held accountable, he said.
Carr said the goal of reform proposals isn’t to neutralize online platforms politically or aid one side’s voices. He rejected comparisons of the 230 proposal to FCC content rules that conservatives have traditionally opposed. “The analogy between fairness doctrine and 230 is not an apt one,” Carr said: Additional transparency rules would aid platforms like Twitter because they would remove the “black box” around company actions seen by some as rooted in political bias.
The rhetoric on the Section 230 proposal is “overblown,” Carr said. He said the changes wouldn’t affect platforms’ ability to act against online calls to violence or obscenity but would focus on political speech. He said the FCC has the authority to pursue the proposal, though he conceded several times the going would be difficult. “I understand there are challenges,” he said. “We can hold these platforms more accountable."
Carr said the support for the proposed rule changes exceeded his expectations, noting backing from AT&T and legislators such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The docket has gotten 7,000 comments, he said.