Trump Reverses Biden’s Big Tech and Broadband Oversight Order
Repeal of EO 14036 drops federal push on net neutrality, broadband price transparency, and merger oversight.
WASHINGTON, August 14, 2025 – The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division welcomed President Donald Trump’s decision Wednesday to revoke Executive Order 14036, a Biden-era directive with sweeping implications for tech and broadband policy.
Issued by former President Joe Biden on July 9, 2021, Executive Order 14036 contained provisions urging the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission to apply stricter antitrust review to mergers in broadband, cable, and Big Tech, warning that consolidation often hurts consumers.
The revoked EO 14036 also directed the Federal Communications Commission to restore net neutrality rules, adopt broadband “nutrition labels” and prevent ISPs from making exclusive deals with landlords to lock out competitors. These policies no longer have the White House’s formal policy backing, which could reduce FCC pressure to advance them.
“The Division will use this opportunity to continue its work to recalibrate and modernize the Federal approach to competition policy to suit the needs of our dynamic and innovative economy,” the DOJ stated in a press release Wednesday.
In the release, the DOJ claimed that it would adopt a “streamlined” review process by reinstating the practice of granting early termination in uncontroversial antitrust reviews and adopt a “willingness to settle merger reviews with targeted and well-crafted consent decrees.” This could make it easier for large internet service providers or tech companies to carry out mergers.
Trump’s decision also removed measures that lowered barriers for new market entrants, helping smaller and municipal broadband providers compete with incumbents. As a result, smaller ISPs lose an executive advocate for competitive access to spectrum and infrastructure.
“America First Antitrust focuses on empowering the American people in the free markets, not enabling regulators and bureaucrats to prescribe outcomes,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. “We are unleashing the new American Golden Age through antitrust enforcement that removes barriers to innovation and opportunity and limits regulatory burdens on free competition.”
The revocation marks a policy shift in federal competition enforcement, moving from the regulatory agenda outlined in EO 14036 to what the DOJ calls “focused law enforcement” aimed at encouraging innovation, streamlining reviews, and lowering compliance burdens.
The order stated that “excessive market concentration threatens basic economic liberties, democratic accountability, and the welfare of workers, farmers, small businesses, startups, and consumers.”
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