FCC Republican backs Musk’s Twitter purchase, slams “restrictions on speech”

Federal Communications Commission member Nathan Simington says the FCC should applaud Musk for buying the social networking site.

Simington, one of two Republican Commissioners on the FCC, said in a statement that the FCC cannot and should not block the sale.

The authority of the FCC over mergers and acquisitions is centered on transactions that involve FCC licenses, so there's not much reason to think the FCC would try to block Musk's pending $44 billion purchase of Twitter. The Chairwoman hasn't issued any statements on the sale. The FCC, Department of Justice, and Federal Trade Commission have the authority to block the sale, according to a group called the Open Markets Institute.

The Open Markets Institute focuses on platform monopolies and was created by people who used to work for the Open Markets Program. The group pointed out that Musk already controls one of the most important Internet platforms in the world, and that the sale of Twitter to him poses a number of immediate and direct threats to American democracy and free speech.

Brendan Carr rebuked the Open Markets statement. Carr said that the FCC has no authority to block Musk's purchase.

Simington slams “censorious... content policies”

Simington said that the FCC can block the deal but also that antitrust regulators should welcome it because of the restrictive and often politically motivated content.

I encourage my colleagues across the government to investigate the market failures and perverse incentives that caused big tech companies to standardize around censorious and

Concerns about Mr. Musk controlling Starlink, a broadband provider that serves less than 1 percent of Americans, cannot be taken seriously.

Simington reportedly helped draft Trump social media order

Simington was nominated to the FCC by Trump in 2020. O&Rielly objected to an executive order that urged the FCC to change the law to limit the legal protections for hosting third-party content on social media platforms.

The FCC must uphold First Amendment speech protections for corporate entities, especially when they engage in editorial decision-making, according to O'Rielly.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, where Simington was a senior advisor, helped draft the Trump executive order. Trump claimed his plan was needed to fight online censorship and political bias. The Senate confirmed the nomination of Simington to serve on the FCC in December of 2020.

Carr supported the executive order. The Chairman of the FCC said he would open a rule-making process to clarify that social media companies do not have special immunity for their content moderation decisions. Pai dropped his plan after the election.

Simington this week emphasized the lack of power the FCC has over online platforms, despite the fact that groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it violated the First Amendment.