Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington is clear on the Twitter-Musk controversy: The FCC cannot get in the way of Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, and the $43 billion buyout of the publicly traded company will be good for Americans, free speech, and the social media marketplace.
"Some have recently called on the FCC to stop Elon Musk from acquiring Twitter, but nothing in the United States code or our regulations gives us the right to interfere with this transaction," Simington wrote in a statement Monday. "Our competition review authority does not and has never extended to internet platforms like Twitter.
"But even if this deal were within our purview, it would be inappropriate and contrary to the public interest to block it. Mr. Musk's acquisition does not raise any concerns about vertical or horizontal concentration in the social media market, and there is no reason to think it would otherwise limit competition or harm consumer welfare.
"In fact, antitrust regulators should welcome this purchase."
Simington denounced all of social media's "restrictive, and often politically motivated, content moderation practices," saying Musk can help correct the ills of bias.
"If Mr. Musk follows through on his stated intention to ease Twitter's restrictions on speech, he would almost certainly enhance competition and better serve those Americans, the majority, who value free speech," Simington said in his statement.
Also, for those concerned about sole ownership of Twitter, Simington added, "nothing about Mr. Musk becoming the sole owner of Twitter would be out of step with the ownership structures of other social media platforms or, for that matter, media companies generally."
"Google, YouTube, Facebook, The Washington Post, and The New York Times are each owned or controlled by one or two people or a single family," his statement said. "Vertical integration is also widespread, and there are numerous examples of common ownership and control of broadband internet access service and online services like search engines, streaming platforms, and news websites."
Not only should the FCC not block the sale of Twitter to Musk, but it should "applaud" it, according to Simington.
"We should instead applaud Mr. Musk for doing something about a serious problem that government has so far failed to address," he wrote. "I encourage my colleagues across the government to investigate the market failures and perverse incentives that caused Big Tech companies to standardize around censorious and slanted content policies in the first place.
"If this acquisition leads to corporate success by bucking the trend toward curated and managed speech informed by the sensibilities of a narrow and unrepresentative class of insiders, it will bring greater diversity to the social media experience."
And, in a warning to those calling on the government to get in Musk's way — or a "disinformation board" seeking to unwind Musk's pursuit of free speech — Simington warned doing so would be "something so blatantly illegal."
"The law in this country does not recognize a government interest in restricting the open exchange of ideas," his statement concluded. "Labeling content as 'fake news' or 'disinformation' does not change that.
"It would be not only unconstitutional, but plainly un-American, for any arm of the government to act against Twitter or Mr. Musk for such a purpose."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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