I mean, this is a terrible (if unsurprising) decision, but I’m left wondering how Brendan Carr is going to still try to claim regulatory authority over social media companies…
There is no possible consistency between “ISPs can throttle and block, but edge services cannot…”
nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social
Trump wants to weaponise the FCC to go against social media companies who “ban free speech” or whatever, just like Elon complained about before buying Twitter, and like all other right wingers are so mad about. But if the FCC doesn’t have any authority to regulate ISPs, why should it have authority to regulate social media companies. Not that the courts seem to care about precedent anymore, but that’s the silver lining they are looking for.
The FCC has authority to punish whomever is the enemy of Reich Wingers, and Trump more specifically. Nothing more, nothing less.
Can the FCC punish a social media company for censoring the approved ideology? Yes. Can the FCC punish a social media company for not censoring the approved ideology? Yes. Can telcos be punished by the FCC for the same two things above? Yes.
It’s all about punishing the enemy, not logical consistency.
All laws protecting the people’s interests are now banned. Don’t like it? Well become a billionaire and maybe the supreme Court will care
otoh:
https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social/post/3lerv476tes22
Bottom line: precedent, rulings, laws, etc have no bearing on the courts.
What matters to the courts is paying back for the favor of appointment. Which means they will rule whatever our oligarchs tell them to rule.
Can you please explain what this means? I’m not sure I understand correctly.
It means that folks are still expecting logic and consistency out of US lawmakers.
Trump wants to weaponise the FCC to go against social media companies who “ban free speech” or whatever, just like Elon complained about before buying Twitter, and like all other right wingers are so mad about. But if the FCC doesn’t have any authority to regulate ISPs, why should it have authority to regulate social media companies. Not that the courts seem to care about precedent anymore, but that’s the silver lining they are looking for.
The FCC has authority to punish whomever is the enemy of Reich Wingers, and Trump more specifically. Nothing more, nothing less.
Can the FCC punish a social media company for censoring the approved ideology? Yes. Can the FCC punish a social media company for not censoring the approved ideology? Yes. Can telcos be punished by the FCC for the same two things above? Yes.
It’s all about punishing the enemy, not logical consistency.
Thank you for the explanation, that makes sense