President-elect Donald Trump has named Brendan Carr as his pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency that oversees radio, television, and digital telecommunications. Carr could help further Trumps goals of persecuting broadcasters who have been unfair to him and ending net neutrality.Carr, who is one of the FCCs five current commissioners, also authored the Heritage Foundations Project 2025 plan for Trumps second administration. In it, Carr wrote that he wanted to ban the video-sharing app TikTok and other Chinese tech firms, prevent social media companies from censoring conservative content, allow billionaire transphobe Elon Musk and other U.S.-based investors to develop Earth- and space-based internet infrastructure, and eliminate outdated FCC regulations and spending policies involving private businesses. Related Trump wanted to use the feds to punish SNL for mocking him Trump wanted to pursue action through the Federal Communications Commission, the courts, or even the Department of Justice. [Carr] was the FCCs General Counsel, Trump wrote in his recent announcement. I first nominated Commissioner Carr to the FCC in 2017, and he has been confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate three times. His current term runs through 2029 Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans Freedoms, and held back our Economy. Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024 Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Its worth noting that President Joe Biden also nominated Carr to continue serving on the commission in May 2023. In his time on the Commission, Carr has focused on expanding affordable, high-speed Internet service to all Americans. Carr also leads a groundbreaking telehealth initiative at the FCC, the Connected Care Pilot Program, which supports the delivery of high-quality care to low-income Americans and veterans, the White House wrote in an announcement about Carrs nomination at the time.Over the past year, Carr has expressed support for ending all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at the FCC; targeting the Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft censorship cartel as well as fact-checking organizations like the Orwellian named NewsGuard; said that NBC should be disciplined for allowing then-presidential nominee Kamala Harris to appear in a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch in early November.In a late October post, the tech policy blog Techdirt accused Carr of deliberately mismanaging the FCCs Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a $20 billion fund to improve internet access in rural areas in order to reduce competition against large telecommunication companies. The blog said that Carr has since pinned the programs failures on Biden rather than admitting his own fault. The FCC just ordered every broadcaster to start posting a race & gender scorecard that breaks down the demographics of their workforce.Activists lobbied for this b/c they want to see businesses pressured into hiring people based on their race & gender.Courts have already pic.twitter.com/4Mvb2sLMKj Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) February 22, 2024Right now, the FCCs bipartisan five-member commission leans Democratic with a 3-2 majority under Biden. Next year, Trump will appoint a new commissioner, inevitably giving it a Republican majority.The international law firm of Perkins Cole wrote that Trump will swiftly use the FCC to overturn Bidensorderto reinstate net neutrality, the principle that internet service providers must provide equal access to all websites and content providers without throttling connectivity or providing quicker traffic to those websites that pay for it.Carr hasvotedto end net neutrality in 2017, saying the decision to end it marked a great day for consumers, for innovation, and for freedom.Trumps FCC could also seek to overturn a new rule that would require disclosure of the use of AI-generated content in political advertisements. Trump shared AI-generated content during his re-election campaign, including an image that falsely made it seem as if pop star and LGBTQ+ ally Taylor Swift supported his campaign. Swift endorsed Trumps opponent during the campaign. Criticizing Trumps selection of Carr as FCC chair, Craig Aaron, the co-CEO of the media watchdog advocacy group Free Press Action, wrote, Brendan Carr has been campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Carr doesnt care about protecting the public interest; he got this job because he will carry out Trump and Musks personal vendettas.While styling himself as a free-speech champion, Carr refused to stand up when Trump threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of TV stations for daring to fact check him during the campaign. This alone should be disqualifying, Aaron added. The public needs a watchdog looking out for them at this independent agency, not an attack dog for Trump and Musk.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.