How the Trump Administration Threatens Internet Freedoms | Donald Trump news

US President-elect Donald Trump is about to take office, and while much attention has been paid to his stance on immigration, abortion rights and democracy, less attention has been paid to how he might threaten internet freedoms.

His appointments to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other government agencies appear to be leaning toward censoring Internet speech and generally making the Internet less free than it has been in years past, technology experts warn.

One of the more well-known figures who may pose a threat to free speech on the Internet is Brendan Carr. Carr, currently a commissioner at the FCC, which regulates the media, was tapped by Trump to lead the agency. Carr shaped himself As a critic of Big Tech and the president-elect calling him a “fighter for free speech,” Carr has taken aim at Internet speech in the past.

“He’s going to try to turn the FCC into the online speech police,” Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, told Al Jazeera.

It is known as a guide for the proposed right-wing administration Project 2025A section written by Carr at the FCC advocates repealing “Section 230’s current approach.” Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects platforms from liability for user posts and allows companies to moderate those posts. In Project 2025, Carr argued that Section 230 should be “fundamental” reformed, including restrictions on companies’ ability to moderate or delete posts expressing “major political views”.

In letters to social media companies, he also accused fact-checking services of being part of a “censorship cartel” and warned that the new Republican Congress and administration will “review” social media actions that “restrict[free speech]rights.”

“He’s made it clear that he intends to use the FCC’s power to target ‘Big Tech Censorship,’ which means punishing any tech company that doesn’t promote right-wing propaganda for its own personal satisfaction,” said Mary Ann Franks, a think tank at Georgetown University in Washington. professor of property, technology and civil rights.

In the past, Carr has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of news networks he deemed “not acting in the public interest,” including CBS, after they aired an interview with Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris that Trump criticized. Although he presented himself as a defender of freedom of speech, he also supported the censorship of speech that the incoming administration did not like.

As for the FTC, which is supposed to protect consumers, Trump has chosen Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the agency. Ferguson is also considered a threat to internet freedoms. He thinks Big Tech companies are censoring conservative speech and wants to use his power to fight back.

Ferguson wants to use antitrust law to go after these companies, and he has claimed that as head of the FTC, he will help the Trump administration “take down uncooperative bureaucrats.” That could mean getting rid of critical career government officials and replacing them with Trump loyalists.

“Ferguson is really singing too much of the same tune with a slightly different set of authorities,” said Matt Wood, senior counsel and vice president for policy at the nonprofit group Free Press.

Greer told Al Jazeera that Ferguson announced she would use the FTC after she spoke out online about gender-affirmation care, LGBTQ issues and abortion.

Experts and free speech advocates have warned that both candidates want to use their power to elevate conservative voices and suppress voices they disagree with.

“There’s also Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, another proponent of the ‘conservative censorship’ myth and a track record of aggressively attacking social media companies and other institutions that seek to uphold minimum anti-rights standards.” – discrimination,” Franks said.

Dhillon, a lawyer and conservative activist, defended a Google employee accused of sexism who was fired during the first Trump administration after writing a memo suggesting that women are less effective programmers because of biological differences.

As head of the Department of Civil Rights, Dhillon would go after tech companies that conservatives allege violate civil liberties, leading to them allowing more offensive or threatening speech targeting minorities and people on their platforms. criticizes the left and the leadership that performs less. Indeed, in announcing his pick, Trump praised Dhillon for taking on Big Tech and “succing corporations that use woke policies.”

Go after the journalists

In addition to these candidates, there are people who will advise Trump, such as Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and David Sachs, the tech billionaire who supported Musk throughout his takeover of Twitter. They are also known for promoting the idea of ​​censoring conservative voices on the internet, and they are fierce opponents of liberal ideology.

Many First Amendment experts worry that if confirmed, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, a former public defender and Trump loyalist, will go after journalists the administration doesn’t approve of. In fact, he repeatedly said he would while on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s podcast. It could also be an internet freedom issue, as he could use the country’s vast surveillance state to do so.

“At a certain point, it’s almost hard to separate our digital rights from our brick-and-mortar rights,” Greer said.

It could be argued that a person’s internet freedoms are curtailed when they are monitored, as they are then less free to act without fear of reprisal. This creates a situation where people are more inclined to self-censor.

For example, during the first Trump administration, the government monitored the social media profiles of Black Lives Matter activists and expressed concerns about their ability to freely express their political views online.

The attacks can be seen as part of what Wood called the administration’s “broader assault on free speech,” including Trump’s threats to revoke the broadcast licenses of news corporations that broadcast stories he doesn’t like, like Carr’s.

It’s unclear whether all of Trump’s nominees will be confirmed by the Senate when they come up for a vote in the coming weeks, but what’s clear is that many of them share similar ideals and could fundamentally change or limit free expression on the Internet.