FCC Republican Voices Doubts About Trump’s Executive Order

Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he’s unsure whether his agency has the authority to carry out President Trump’s executive order targeting tech firms’ legal protections. From a report: Trump’s order seeks to have the FCC craft regulations limiting the scope of legal immunity that online platforms have under federal law. All three commission Republicans would need to support such regulations for them to pass, as the FCC’s two Democrats are certain to oppose them. In an interview Wednesday for C-SPAN’s “The Communicators,” O’Rielly told Axios he sympathizes with the president’s claims that conservatives have been unfairly stifled online, but “what we do about that is a different story. I have deep reservations they provided any intentional authority for this matter, but I want to listen to people,” O’Rielly said, later adding, “I do not believe it is the right of the agency to read into the statute authority that is not there.”