Gomez Sounds Alarm on Trump-Era ‘Campaign to Chill Speech’
On First Amendment Tour, commissioner urges FCC to ‘pivot away from sham investigations.’
May 29, 2025 – Democratic Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez warned on Wednesday that the First Amendment was under threat, and urged attendees “to stay resolute.”
"We’ve seen the FCC launch investigations into broadcasters because of their editorial decisions and their newsrooms…” she said. “We've seen them threaten tech companies for their decisions to moderate content... We’ve seen them go after universities, law firms, protesters, and even former administration officials who dared to speak out against the administration — all in an attempt to chill speech. This is an administration-wide effort to censor and control, and it is very alarming."
Speaking Wednesday at California State University, Gomez told attendees that she hopes the FCC will not attempt to moderate content online.
"Section 230 does not give the FCC any authority to regulate how content is moderated online. Even if it did, it would be unconstitutional,” she explained. “Content moderation is a form of speech. These are private companies, and the First Amendment prohibits government interference in the speech of any actor.”
Despite this, it has been widely rumored that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr planned to launch a rulemaking to reinterpret Section 230 — first at the agency’s February open meeting, and again in March. The rumored proceeding has not yet been formally introduced, but Carr outlined his intentions in a chapter he authored for Project 2025, a far-right policy agenda. A similar rulemaking targeting tech platforms’ content moderation practices has already been initiated by the Federal Trade Commission.
Gomez also took aim at the FCC’s recently launched “Delete, Delete, Delete” docket, and speculated that many of its proposals would get passed once Republicans held a majority on the commission.
“What was odd about ‘Delete, Delete, Delete’ was it sounded like a commission-level document because it [used] ‘we’ – ‘we are doing this,’ ‘we are doing that’ – but it was not voted by commissioners,” she explained.
“Right now we’re in an impasse between two Democrats and two Republicans…and so either when the third commissioner is confirmed, or when the other Democratic commissioner leaves – which he has announced that he’s doing – then [Carr] will be able to take action.”
FCC action without full commission vote will not survive judicial scrutiny, Gomez says
Still, Gomez said she “does not believe” any FCC action to eliminate rules without a full commission vote would survive judicial scrutiny. She also warned that Carr may attempt to sidestep the Administrative Procedure Act by invoking the “good cause” exemption — a legally tenuous move that could bypass public input.
Gomez’s stop at Cal State was part of her First Amendment Tour, which seeks “to defend the First Amendment from those who use it as a weapon against the very freedoms it protects.”
In response to a question from an audience member, Gomez speculated on her own job security, citing recent firings of Democratic commissioners at other independent agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, which currently has no dissenting voices on its panel.
"I don’t know why I’m still in this position,” she remarked. “I may not be in it for the rest of my term, which would be illegal and a disregard for the will of Congress. But that doesn’t mean I won’t speak out – and it won’t stop me. If I get fired, it won’t be because I didn’t do my job – it’ll be because I insisted on doing it."
Gomez concluded her prepared remarks with a plea to her colleagues at the FCC, and to the public at large.
"We need the FCC to pivot away from these sham investigations and from this harassment, with the endgame of chilling speech, and move more towards regulat[ing] to the benefit of consumers,” she said.
“Let’s get broadband deployed to everyone throughout this country. Let’s promote localism, support the wonderful services that our local broadcasters provide – especially our public broadcasters,” Gomez said. “That is what we need the FCC to be doing. While it’s not doing that, then we need to speak up, because capitulation breeds capitulation. The good news is: courage breeds courage. We need everyone to stay resolute."
