Trump Picks Brendan Carr to Lead F.C.C.

Trump Picks Brendan Carr to Lead F.C.C.

Mr. Carr, who currently sits on the commission and is a vocal critic of Big Tech, has said the agency should regulate the tech industry.

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By Cecilia Kang

Cecilia Kang has covered the F.C.C. for more than a decade from Washington.

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Sunday chose Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, naming a veteran Republican regulator who has publicly agreed with the incoming administration’s promises to slash regulation, go after Big Tech and punish TV networks for political bias.

Mr. Carr, who currently sits on the commission, is expected to shake up a quiet agency that licenses airwaves for radio and TV, regulates phone costs, and promotes the spread of home internet. Before the election, Mr. Trump indicated he wanted the agency to strip broadcasters like NBC and CBS of their licensing for unfair coverage.

Mr. Carr, 45, was the author of a chapter on the F.C.C. in the conservative Project 2025 planning document, in which he argued that the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft.

“The censorship cartel must be dismantled,” Mr. Carr said last week in a post on X.

Mr. Carr could drastically reshape the independent agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it as a political weapon for the right, telecommunications attorneys and analysts said. They predicted Mr. Carr would test the legal limits of the agency’s power by pushing to oversee companies like Meta and Google, setting up a fierce battle with Silicon Valley.

Mr. Carr has “proposed to do a lot of things he has no jurisdiction to do and in other cases he’s blatantly misreading the rules,” said Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of the nonpartisan public interest group Free Press.

“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

Mr. Carr didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Carr won’t have free rein to make changes. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have taken on the biggest roles in regulating tech, primarily through antitrust lawsuits and policing violations of consumer protection law.

Congress oversees the F.C.C.’s budget, and it would likely take new legislation to expand the agency’s regulatory oversight over companies like Google and Meta, which are not defined as communications services, legal experts said. The commission under the Trump administration would comprise three Republicans and two Democrats.

The F.C.C. is also prohibited from punishing television and radio stations for editorial decisions, except for uses of obscenities and violations of children’s television rules.

Still, Mr. Carr could use the bully pulpit of the agency to pressure companies, the experts added. He could also threaten to block mergers or investigate regulatory failures, which can result in fines or the loss of licenses.

“Brendan is by far the most talented politician on the commission right now,” said Blair Levin, a former chief of staff for the F.C.C. and policy adviser for the New Street investment research firm. “But the real question is what can he actually do with the authorities the F.C.C. has now.”

Mr. Carr, a career telecommunications attorney, received a law degree from the Catholic University in Washington. He joined the F.C.C. as a legal adviser in 2012 and became general counsel five years later.

In 2017, Mr. Trump appointed him to one of the Republican seats on the commission. Mr. Carr focused on promoting high-speed wireless internet, which was still getting rolled out in rural areas. He also supported the Republican chairman Ajit Pai’s rollback of regulations like net neutrality, which categorized internet service providers as utilities for regulation purposes. The F.C.C. under Democratic control reinstated the rules earlier this year, and they are currently being challenged in court.

“When the transition is complete, the F.C.C. will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth while advancing our national security interests and supporting law enforcement,” Mr. Carr said in a statement after the election.

Mr. Carr has also aligned himself with Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who is a close ally of the president-elect.

Mr. Musk’s Starlink satellite internet provider received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the F.C.C.’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which gives internet service providers funding to bring high-speed internet to rural homes and businesses.

But the Democratic-led F.C.C. revoked that grant in 2022 because Starlink failed to meet speed requirements and couldn’t prove it would serve enough unconnected rural homes, according to the F.C.C.

Mr. Carr vociferously opposed the decision, saying in a statement that the Biden administration had targeted Mr. Musk.

“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” Mr. Carr wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal published last month.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.