FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called a demand by the leftist lobby group Open Market Institute for the feds to block Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter “frivolous,” while pouring scorn on the idea it should be done to protect free speech.
The Open Markets Institute, a liberal think tank, claims that the FCC, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission all have the power to block the takeover under the Communications Act of 1934 and even the Telegraph Act of 1860.
They are upset with the sale because it would apparently give “direct control over one of the world’s most important platforms for public communications and debate” to one person and would represent a monopolistic merger between Twitter and Musk’s Starlink.
Liberal groups are noticeably less concerned about legacy media and social media outlets being owned by left-wing billionaires and pro-regime moguls who agree with their views.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr shot down the idea that the Federal Communications Commission should block the sale, calling the demand “particularly frivolous” and noting that the agency has zero authority to block it.
The FCC has zero authority to block Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
And it is particularly frivolous to ask the agency to do so in the name of protecting free speech and open debate. pic.twitter.com/bOB4LpEvlB
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) April 27, 2022
“The FCC has no authority to block Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, and to suggest otherwise is absurd,” Carr’s statement reads. “I would welcome the full FCC making it clear that we will not entertain these types of frivolous arguments.”
Carr also asserted that leftists were setting up a false strawman, and that the primary concern should be restoring Twitter as a public town square for freedom of expression.
“They say that Twitter must stick with its current approach to moderation or unleash a flood of terrorist speech & illegal content,” he said.
“This is a false choice that ignores the issue: suppression of core political speech.”
During an interview with Fox Business, Carr said he was “hopeful that Elon Musk is going to bend Twitter’s content moderation towards a greater embrace of free speech.”
The pro-censorship crowd is running a straw man argument.
They say that @Twitter must stick with its current approach to moderation or unleash a flood of terrorist speech & illegal content.
This is a false choice that ignores the issue: suppression of core political speech. pic.twitter.com/kjwspFCEXI
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) April 26, 2022
“There was a pivot point in this country that I think came around 2016 when people started to reach the view, particularly among the hard left, that the free exchange of ideas is incompatible with the outcomes that they want to see at the ballot box,” said Carr.
Experts have also said that the FTC is unlikely to intervene in the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk.
So I guess leftists are back to screaming and hyperventilating about it all on Twitter.
As we highlighted earlier, the Biden White House responded by launching a new DHS ‘disinformation unit’.
The unit will be headed by a woman who promoted the fake news that the Hunter Biden laptop story was ‘Russian disinformation’.
via zerohedge
