A Democrat-appointed Federal Communications Commissioner is accusing the president of the very anti-free speech behavior in which she engaged.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez accused President Donald Trump at a Friday Competitive Enterprise Institute event of threatening First Amendment liberties. But as MRC reported in a recent exposé on how the Biden administration waged war on free speech, Gomez has taken part in anti-free speech activities of her own while working in the federal government.
Gomez hypocritically lectured, according to CyberScoop: “The First Amendment has protected our fundamental right to freely speak and to hold power to account since 1791. It is foundational to our democracy and yet today, the greatest threat to that freedom is coming from our own government.”
It’s just too bad she didn’t remember that when she was coordinating censorship from the FCC.
She accused Trump and the new FCC chair, Brendan Carr, of suppressing free speech by enforcing broadcast laws. “This FCC has made clear that it will go after any news outlet that dares to report the truth, if that truth is unfavorable or inconvenient to this administration,” she whined. In reality, Carr and Trump have prioritized free speech, while Gomez has a track record of censorship.
Trump issued an executive order during his first term directing the FCC to issue administrative rulemaking clarifying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
As MRC’s previous reporting explained:
Under the Communications Act, digital services fall into two categories: Title II common carriers or 47 U.S.C. § 230 (Section 230) online information services. Title II common carriers are forbidden from censoring. Section 230’s text states that an online information service is generally not liable as a publisher for the content third parties upload, and does not become a publisher so long as it limits its removal of content to an enumerated list of categorical justifications. However, this definition has been muddied by activist lower court judges who have suggested that Section 230-protected platforms (but not Title II common carriers) can censor with impunity.
Although Trump requested Section 230 clarification, Biden rescinded that order (Initiative #48) and although it did not have to, the FCC also decided to halt its rulemaking authority and impose Title II requirements on internet service providers. The FCC argument was based on the assumption that if ISPs were protected by Section 230, they would have the right legally to censor speech. Gomez promoted this perversion of Section 230.
The FCC under Biden also issued a sweeping digital equity order, which gave federal officials significant power to censor speech without requirements to follow common carrier laws (Initiative #50). Gomez was one of the commissioners who enacted this order.
Furthermore, MRC highlighted, the FCC, including Gomez specifically, targeted billionaire Elon Musk’s businesses in an attempt to derail his efforts to purchase Twitter and make it into a free speech platform (Initiative #54). In contrast, the FCC fast-tracked Soros Fund Management’s acquisition of the radio giant Audacy (Initiative #51). Billionaire George Soros has lavished money on censorship entities.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
