Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr used a Barcelona conference to let the world know where America stands on free speech.
Carr denounced biased artificial intelligence, attempts to harm American tech companies as well as the European Union’s draconian pro-censorship Digital Services Act (DSA) during his March 2 keynote address to the Mobile World Congress.
“In America, we are returning to our First Amendment roots,” Carr told the audience. “We're returning to our free speech tradition and from President Trump to me—across the government—we are encouraging our technology companies to stop the censorship we saw over the last couple of years.”
Carr followed this by saying that this meant the end to America turning a blind eye to European censorship and abuse of American tech companies. “Now on this front, there is some concern that I have with respect to the approach that Europe is taking,” Carr warned, before turning his attention to the DSA. This law, Carr cautioned, created the risk of “excessive rules with respect to free speech.”
He added: “It's a worry, I think, here for the people of Europe but for U.S. technology companies that do business here the censorship that is potentially coming down the pipe from the DSA is something that is incompatible with both our free speech tradition in America and the commitments that these technology companies have made to a diversity of opinions.”
Carr, the new FCC chair, brought up a letter he had sent to American technology companies, indicating that the U.S. would defend them against attacks on free speech like the DSA. Carr also warned against “protectionist” measures against American tech companies, likely referring to the fines and regulations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for platforms in the EU.
Carr continued, “The Trump administration has been clear that we're going to speak up and defend the interest of U.S. businesses. What we are going to insist on is a level and fair playing field. So, as we move forward with AI we need to apply all those same traditional principles.”
Twice during his speech, Carr stressed the importance of keeping artificial intelligence free of ideological bias, making sure the development of this technology marks “a return to America’s commitment to free speech.”
Related: Trump Strips ‘Ideological Bias’ from AI in Latest Biden Rebuke
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