FCC Chair Defends Free Speech As Bondi ‘Hate Speech’ Comments Cause Conservative Uproar

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr pushed back Tuesday against the idea that the government should police online speech, even as posts spread across social media celebrating the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Speaking at Politico’s AI & Tech Summit, Carr drew a sharp distinction between speech protected under the First Amendment and the narrow categories that are not. His remarks came a day after Attorney General Pam Bondi promised to target “hate speech,” sparking widespread criticism from conservatives and even calls for her removal.

“I think you can draw a pretty clear line, and the Supreme Court has done this for decades, that our First Amendment, our free speech tradition, protects almost all speech,” Carr said. “But there are certain categories of posts, of content that are unprotected by the First Amendment. These are things like incitement to violence, those are things like fighting words.”

Carr stressed that such exceptions are a “small category” and said existing laws already cover them.

Given the widespread circulation of video footage showing Kirk’s assassination, Carr was asked whether social media platforms should moderate such content.

“I don’t think it’s so much that the video was horrific and violent. I think it was the act itself that was horrific and violent,” Carr said. “I think we should be giving individuals the tools to curate their own feeds and be in control of what it is that they want to see.”

Bondi, meanwhile, has sought to clarify her earlier comments made during a Monday podcast episode with host Katie Miller.