Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, pointed to one of President Donald Trump's first executive orders upon entering the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. It appears that his chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, may have violated it.
"On President Trump's first day in office, he signed an executive order prohibiting any federal employee from pressuring private companies to censor in ways that 'advanced the Government's preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,'" wrote Perrino, posting a screen capture of the order.
The administration claimed that the previous administration did this "under the guise of combating 'misinformation,' 'disinformation' and 'malinformation...'"
Carr appeared to deploy the same tactic, telling CNBC on Thursday morning, "It was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant factthat probably one of the most significant political events we’ve had in a long time, for the most significant political assassination we’ve seen in a long time."