Project 2025 FCC Chapter: Brendan Carr's Agenda to Re-Shape Communications Policy
Project 2025's FCC chapter, authored by Chairman Brendan Carr, targets Big Tech through Section 230 reform, content-moderation transparency, and a Universal Service Fund expansion, while advancing national-security-driven bans on Chinese entities. As of October 2025, Carr is in office, Section 230 and transparency proceedings are underway, the TikTok ban and Covered List expansions are partial, and the Big Tech USF contribution remains not enacted.
Project 2025's FCC agenda, now partially executed under Chairman Brendan Carr, uses a national-security and anti-censorship frame to concentrate power in the hands of a handful of telecom and tech giants, while hollowing out consumer protections and the agency's pro-competition mandate.
The chapter's call to 'reform Section 230' — partially underway via FCC inquiries — would strip liability protections from platforms, chilling moderation of hate speech, disinformation, and scams. This does not reduce Big Tech's power; it empowers them to block enforcement by claiming free-speech rights, while small competitors and users lose the only tool to hold them accountable for harmful content. Carr's push to require Big Tech to pay into the Universal Service Fund — not yet enacted — sounds fair but would entrench the largest firms as gatekeepers of rural broadband subsidies, while leaving the program's broken contribution structure intact.
On national security, Carr's demands to ban TikTok (partial, via ongoing reviews) and expand the Covered List (partial, via rulemaking) target Chinese firms but also risk sweeping in legitimate competition, raising prices for consumers and enabling domestic monopolies. The chapter's 'unregulated end run' loophole — meant to stop China Telecom from offering unlicensed services — is an overreach: it would let the FCC block any carrier from connecting with any provider deemed 'insecure,' turning the agency into a political weapon against rivals.
A structural alternative would restore the FCC's role as a pro-competition, pro-consumer agency through sector-specific antitrust enforcement and rulemaking that treats all edge providers equitably.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Replace FCC Chairman A future president nominates and the Senate confirms a chairman committed to restoring Section 230 protections, net neutrality, and evidence-based antitrust enforcement.
- Rescind interpretive Section 230 rules A new FCC majority votes to withdraw any interpretive rules or policy statements that expand the agency's role in content-moderation oversight.
- Repeal or amend any TikTok ban Congress passes legislation reversing any executive order or FCC ban, or a new administration revokes the order.
- Suspend Covered List expansions The FCC under new leadership pauses additions to the Covered List pending a national-security review that complies with due process and competitive analysis.
- Cease transparency rulemaking The FCC withdraws proposed rules that impose content-moderation transparency requirements on platforms, citing First Amendment concerns.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 30: Federal Trade Commission (pp 882-884)"— 849 — Federal Communications Commission Big Tech, and it should look to Section 230 and the Consolidated Reporting Act as potential sources of authority.19 In acting, the FCC could require these platforms to provide greater specificity regarding their terms of service, and it could hold them accountable by prohibiting actions that are inconsistent with those plain and particular terms. Within this framework, Big Tech should be required to offer a transparent appeals process that allows for the challenging of pretextual takedowns or other actions that violate clear rules of the road. l Support legislation that scraps Section 230’ s current approach. The FCC should work with Congress on more fundamental Section 230 reforms that go beyond interpreting its current terms. Congress should do so by ensuring that Internet companies no longer have carte blanche to censor protected speech while maintaining their Section 230 protections. As part of those reforms, the FCC should work with Congress to ensure that antidiscrimination provisions are applied to Big Tech—including “back-end” companies that provide hosting services and DDoS protection. Reforms that prohibit discrim…"