Big Telecom, Robocallers, Love Brendan Carr’s Plan To Lobotomize The FCC

Last month Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr announced his “DELETE, DELETE, DELETE” initiative. It’s basically a plan to lobotomize FCC corporate oversight and consumer protection at the behest of industry giants, dressed up as very serious, very efficient adult policymaking.

Carr’s trying to pretend this is a serious democratic process, so he opened a public comment section on his efforts to “unleash prosperity through deregulation.” In reality, Trump is trying to remove all transparency and public input from his plan to dismantle corporate oversight and usher in a golden age of corruption.

At the FCC, that will mean letting your cable or broadband company rip you off with shitty fees, or charge poor and minority people more money for shittier service. It means more shitty broadband usage caps, higher prices, worse customer service, and no serious government efforts to rein in fraud or protect consumers from scammy robocallers and people abusing your private data.

Very innovative! Very populist!

Not too surprisingly, all of America’s shittiest telecom and marketing companies are very excited about what Brendan has planned. AT&T’s keen to see Brendan’s FCC stop imposing pesky fines for things like ripping off their own customers or lying about the definition of “unlimited data”:

“AT&T’s comments ask the FCC to halt enforcement proceedings that could result in financial penalties, saying that a Supreme Court ruling “calls into serious question the constitutionality” of the FCC’s enforcement regime.”

Marketing lobbying groups are excited for Brendan’s FCC to ease rules protecting consumers from annoying robocalls because they might miss a call or two from a predatory debt collector:

“ACA International claimed the rule harms customers who have overdue payments on several accounts. The “revoke all” rule “puts consumers in jeopardy because they may be deprived of the opportunity to resolve outstanding debts, leaving them exposed to litigation or worsening of the consumer’s credit rating,” the group said.”

Verizon is keen for Brendan to dismantle FCC requirements on making sure their phones are unlocked, as well as requirements they provide accurate wireless coverage data:

“Verizon asked the FCC to eliminate a rule that requires it to unlock mobile phones so that they can be used on other networks…Verizon also asked the FCC to ditch some rules related to submitting broadband mapping data.”

There are plenty of other requests being made. Prison telecom monopolies want the FCC to reverse rules preventing them from ripping off inmate families. SpaceX and Starlink want the FCC to ease off already-modest rules governing space junk. Cable companies want the FCC to ditch rules requiring billing transparency. Telecoms also want Carr to ease off the agency’s already feckless privacy enforcement.

Corporations won’t get the entirety of their wishlist, but they’ll get most of it. We’ve noted repeatedly how recent Supreme Court rulings like Loper Bright effectively defang regulatory independence at corporate behest. So even if Carr’s FCC uncharacteristically did move to do something of benefit to consumers, it likely wouldn’t survive legal challenge in our very broken, right-wing lurching court system.

Again, very innovative! Very populist! Much democracy!

This is all a culmination of decades of corporate lobbying, propped up by “free market” Libertarian think tanks custom-built to pretend that the pursuit of unchecked greed and unaccountable corporate power was a useful ethos with no real-world repercussions. Congratulations everyone. The glorious future you envisioned is finally here. Be sure to take full ownership of the fruit of your labors, and enjoy!