Tech and Media Reform: How FCC Reforms Impact Trump’s Squabble on the Equal Time Rule, the NBC Network, and the Space Economy

Brendan Carr is now formally the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, giving him the power to set the agency’s agenda and usher through a host of regulations with major implications for the tech and media industries as soon as he has a Republican majority.

Republican votes will be needed on the commission to approve measures that are not bipartisan. Mark Meador is a former staffer of Mike Lee and has been nominated by Trump to join the commission.

When it comes to violating the equal time rule the FCC could use his power to revoking spectrum licenses for networks that decide to host speech. This came up in a squabble between the NBC network and Donald Trump because they wanted to give the candidate more time and place on public airwaves before the election.

A new TikTok law took effect on Sunday, and is linked to Trump’s action because it makes it a crime for companies to support the service if ByteDance is in charge. The law passed in April worried both parties that the Chinese government could use the app for espionage.

Carr identified tech and media regulation and unleashing new opportunities for jobs and growth through agency actions on spectrum, infrastructure, and the space economy as some of the areas of focus.

The First Day of the Trade-Off: Trump’s Correlation with a Private Company and the Co-Official Site TikTok

The order, issued on Trump’s first day of office, is meant to effectively extend the deadline for a sale by undercutting penalties on American companies like Apple and Google working with TikTok. It directs the Attorney General “not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way.” The AG is supposed to “issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred.”

One important aspect of the TikTok ban law, though, is that its interpretation and enforcement is up to the White House — even if that means, technically speaking, not following the law’s requirements.

The US government will have a stake in TikTok through a joint venture with a private company, Trump said on Sunday. How this would work is a mystery.

Ryan Calo is a law professor at the University of Washington, and he said law gives the office of the president an “exploding amount of power”.

Some legal experts expect Trump’s executive action to be challenged in court by a tech company to seek a “declaratory judgement,” a ruling to clear up the muddy legal picture. If big tech companies are found to be in violation of a federal statute, there could be shareholder lawsuits regarding the market value of their stock.

One of Trump’s first acts as president would be lying to Congress if he tells them those things happened when he did not, in order to get an exemption to the ban.

The text of the order said that it will give Trump’s administration time to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.

Companies reacted differently to a social media post by Trump. TikTok flipped its servers back on and sent a notification to all users crediting Trump with TikTok’s return. Both Oracle and Akamai have restored web support.

While the executive action of Trump Monday attempts to clarify the legal landscape for TikTok, a University of Minnesota Law School constitutional scholar says it does not change an act of Congress.

“Those actions do not stop the law from being in effect. “Oracle, as far as I know, is breaking the law right now and it doesn’t stop,” he said.