WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Brendan Carr, an Elon Musk-backed critic of big tech, to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling him a "warrior for Free Speech" in a statement on Sunday. Carr has "fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms" and will "end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America," Trump said in the statement.

Carr said on Musk's social platform X that he was "humbled and honored" to take on the role of FCC chairman. "We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans," he wrote in another post Sunday. It is a phrase he has used repeatedly, posting on Friday: "Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel," adding that it "must be dismantled." Carr was already the senior Republican on the FCC, an independent agency that regulates licenses for television and radio, pricing of home internet, and other communications issues in the United States.

Long rumored as a contender for FCC chair, he has built an alliance with billionaire Musk - Trump's wealthiest backer, whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash. The New York Times reported that Starlink received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the FCC - but that the Democrat-led commission later revoked it because the service couldn't prove it would reach enough unconnected rural homes. Carr "vociferously" opposed the decision, the newspaper reported. "In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left's top targets: Mr. Musk," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article last month.

Carr has also publicly agreed with the incoming Trump administration's promises to slash regulation and punish television networks for what they say is political bias. Trump has repeatedly called to strip major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC and CBS of their licenses. During the 2024 campaign he singled out CBS, saying its license should be revoked after its flagship news program "60 Minutes" aired an interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump had declined to sit for a similar interview.

Carr also authored a chapter on the FCC in the controversial Project 2025 document that purported to lay out a vision for a second Trump administration, in which he also called for the regulation of the largest tech companies, such as Meta, Google and Apple. The FCC needs to bring new urgency to four main goals: reining in big tech, promoting national security, "unleashing" economic prosperity and ensuring FCC accountability, he wrote in the document by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Carr first joined the FCC in 2012. In 2017, during his first term as president, Trump appointed him as one of the agency's commissioners. Carr had previously worked as a lawyer specializing in regulatory issues. - AFP