Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s call for regulation wasn’t well received by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.
Zuckerberg urged governments get involved navigating the issues of “harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.” Carr responded during a “Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast” interview Sunday. He called the idea “a way of passing the buck for a lot of the criticism that Facebook has been receiving recently and trying to shift the blame and the responsibility onto the government.”
Zuckerberg’s piece made some acknowledgements toward conservative concerns, such as saying that, “Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree.” His proposed solution was the creation of an independent body to review.
Carr’s response to this idea was that, “Whenever you outsource censorship to the government, it's not just a bad idea, it's one that violates the 1st Amendment.” He added that America has “a long tradition of free speech in this country dating back to our founding where our framers decided that the American people should decide the relative value and merit of ideas, and not the government.”
Carr mused that this may have been a cynical bit of political theatre to distract from Facebook’s various scandals. “I see Facebook's call for more regulation mainly as a way of passing the buck for a lot of the criticism that Facebook has been receiving recently and trying to shift the blame and the responsibility onto the government.”
