FCC’s Gomez Slams Rumored Section 230 Advisory Opinion

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2025 – FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez sharply criticized reports Sunday suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission may be considering an advisory opinion on Section 230.

“An advisory opinion on Section 230 is an attempt to increase government control of online speech,” Gomez wrote in posts to BlueSky and X.

The FCC has not formally announced any such opinion, but reports, including a recent New York Post article, suggested that FCC chairman Brendan Carr was exploring ways to weaken the liability shield that protects social media companies from lawsuits over user-generated content.

Gomez’s office did not respond to a request for comment clarifying whether her remarks were based on internal FCC discussions or media speculation.

Despite Congress having sole authority over Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act, and court rulings limiting the FCC’s ability to reinterpret the law without congressional direction, Carr has remained steadfast in calling for regulatory action on the issue.

Meanwhile, legal experts and other FCC commissioners have repeatedly asserted that Section 230 regulation falls outside the FCC’s jurisdiction.

“An advisory opinion like this signals what the FCC already knows. It has little to no authority to weigh in on this complex issue,” Gomez wrote Sunday. “That’s why this is a vague and weak effort. Only Congress can change and amend the law that gave us the internet as we know it today.”

While an FCC advisory opinion on Section 230 would be largely symbolic, it could have political and legal ripple effects. An advisory opinion only serves to signal how the FCC views a particular legal issue.

Gomez has consistently pushed back against Carr’s position, arguing that the FCC’s role in the debate constitutes overreach.

“Increasingly, the biggest threats to free speech are not coming from Big Tech or from the media,” Gomez warned Sunday. “It is meant to bully private social media companies to comply with direct demands from the Administration.”

As of late Monday, the FCC had not announced any advisory opinion, and Carr has not publicly confirmed whether such a move was imminent. 

However, in a Friday interview with Broadband Breakfast, Carr said: “I think Section 230 reform is something that is very much on the table at the FCC. I've been pushing hard at different features of the censorship cartel, which is whether it's NewsGuard, which I have more work to do on that front, but they are part of the tip of the spear of the censorship cartel.”