Adam Candeub, a prominent adversary of Big Tech, is set to take a position with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
According to reports from Semafor, Candeub will be stepping in as the general counsel of the FCC, with confirmation coming from FCC chairman Brendan Carr. TechCrunch has reached out to the FCC for additional details.
Candeub has been a passionate critic of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, established in 1996. This statute safeguards technology companies and online service providers from legal repercussions for user-generated content posted on their platforms. Opponents of repealing Section 230 argue that it would make tech companies, particularly social media platforms, responsible for the content shared on their sites, potentially resulting in widespread censorship.
In 2020, Candeub was instrumental in drafting an administrative petition urging the FCC to intervene in the heated discussions surrounding social media content moderation. These discussions were ignited when Donald Trump accused social media platforms of silencing conservative voices after they moderated his false claims regarding voter fraud during the 2020 election.
That effort to diminish the influence of Section 230 was ultimately unsuccessful. Subsequent challenges have also faltered. In 2023, the Supreme Court sided with Google and Twitter in related cases that sought to hold these platforms accountable for allowing content that promoted the Islamic State.
As the topic of Section 230 was already anticipated to resurface in this administration, Candeub’s addition to the FCC comes at a time when chairman Carr has expressed a desire for reform concerning the statute.
Candeub has a past connection with the FCC, having served as an advisor in the early 2000s. He became part of the Trump Administration in 2019, taking on the role of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information, and later acting as the Assistant Secretary. During the final weeks of Trump’s presidency in late 2020, he also served as Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice. Currently a law professor at Michigan State University, Candeub has been a member of its law faculty since 2004.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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