Censorship

The CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” is not going easy on President Trump and the commander in chief is noticing. President Trump went after the program in a social media post after seeing two critical stories regarding his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and his proposal to annex Greenland.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr, recently launched his own proceeding he calls “IN RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE.” Carr says he’s following Trump’s orders to deregulate the telecommunications industry to spur economic prosperity.

As Myanmar remains shaken by a devastating earthquake, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives, a lack of connectivity is proving to be an obstacle to relief and rescue work. Htaike Htaike Aung, a leading digital rights advocate, is monitoring the situation in the most-affected areas. Myanmar’s Sagaing region, the quake’s epicenter and a battleground between the military and resistance forces, remains under a strict communications blockade.

On March 12, 2025, Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the Ranking Member of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote to the acting chiefs of the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement and Media Bureaus seeking answers to seven questions about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr orders to reopen complaints against and investigations into media broadcasters. On March 26, Chairman Carr replied noting that "During the Biden Administration, the FCC and Democrats across government repeatedly weaponized our country’s communications laws and processes.

These comments are submitted to emphasize the unprecedented nature of this news distortion proceeding, and to express our strong concern that the Federal Communications Commission may be seeking to censor the news media in a manner antithetical to the First Amendment. The undersigned commenters comprise a bipartisan group of former FCC Chairs and Commissioners.

Ever since Donald Trump bumped Brendan Carr up to chair of the Federal Communications Commission in November 2024 (after naming him a commissioner during his first term), Chairman Carr has attacked the country’s media, entertainment and even tech giants with a cool fury, threatening their business and, critics say, attempting to bully them into more favorable coverage of the President. Historically concerned with the sundry matters of broadcast licenses and station fines, the FCC hardly would seem like the centerpiece of a major media-suppression effort.

The Trump administration’s move to shut down the Open Technology Fund (OTF), an internet freedom project that helped millions of people in China access the open web, has stirred concern from lawmakers, including Republicans, who argue the nonprofit is a crucial tool to counter the rise of Beijing. OTF, launched in 2012, was intended to allow people who live under repressive regimes to circumvent restrictions and access the internet.

Digital blackouts reached a record high in 2024 in Africa as more governments sought to keep millions of citizens off the internet than in any other period over the last decade. A report released by the internet rights group Access Now and #KeepItOn, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide, found there were 21 shutdowns in 15 African countries, surpassing the existing record of 19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021. Authorities in Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and Mauritius joined repeat offenders such as Burundi, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, and Kenya.

Chair Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission, President Donald Trump’s “censure-in-chief,” is waging a war on the First Amendment and freedom of the press by investigating all of the president's perceived enemies and the major media networks, while letting Fox News and Rupert Murdoch off the hook. The selective weaponization of the FCC against media outlets that President Trump dislikes by threatening to revoke their licenses is not only unprecedented and dangerous but also beyond hypocritical.

Sens Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) announced the introduction of the Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act, legislation that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from revoking broadcast licenses or taking action against broadcasters based on the viewpoints they broadcast. The legislation would reaffirm the importance of the independence of the FCC, including that the President should not mandate the FCC’s agenda.