FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr came down hard against the Open Markets Institute on Wednesday, characterizing its request to block Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter as "absurd."
In its press release, the FCC wrote:
"Yesterday, the Open Markets Institute issued a press release that called for the FCC, FTC, and DOJ to block Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter. They argue that the transaction poses a 'direct threat to American democracy and free speech.' And their release cites to the Telegraph Act of 1860, among other statutory authorities, in the context of arguing that these federal agencies have authority to block the deal."
And then came a blunt offering from Commissioner Carr:
"The FCC has no authority to block Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, and to suggest otherwise is absurd. I would welcome the full FCC making it clear that we will not entertain these types of frivolous arguments."
To accentuate his earlier ruling, Carr also took to Twitter on Wednesday with the following post:
"The FCC has zero authority to block Musk's purchase of Twitter.
"And it is particularly frivolous to ask the agency to do so in the name of protecting free speech and open debate."
Open Markets' request might baffle some, since Musk has pledged to bring the notion of "free speech" back to Twitter.
Only two days have passed since Musk announced his new acquisition. However, in the meantime, it's been a crazy 48 hours.
To wit:
- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, reportedly the world's second-richest man (behind Musk), not-so-subtly implied on social media that China had influenced Musk's Twitter purchase.
- Some Democrat politicians excoriated Musk for spending $44 billion on a social media platform, when that kind of money could potentially eradicate hunger throughout the world. Other Democrats called for an immediate tax on billionaires ... even though Musk reportedly paid more than $11 billion in taxes for fiscal year 2021.
- Twitter staffers publicly challenged Musk's belief that locking out the New York Post's Twitter account in October 2020 — just days before the presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump — was an egregious act. Musk's exact quote: "Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate." The Twitter staffers justified the move at the time, using the rationale of not promoting "hacked" materials. The problem here: Hunter Biden's now-infamous laptop from 2019, which helped drive the New York Post's initial report into Hunter's overseas business dealings, was never hacked.
- And on Wednesday, Musk praised Truth Social, the creation of former President Trump, for ranking No. 1 with the Apple App Store. He also acknowledged that Truth Social "exists because Twitter censored free speech." Musk also teased Trump for the Truth Social moniker — a "terrible name," says Musk — while volunteering a new name for the novice platform: "Trumpet."
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