LIVE FROM MWC25 BARCELONA: US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr (pictured) did not pull any punches over the European Commission’s Digital Services Act (DSA), branding the legislation a threat to free speech in his nation.

In a keynote, Carr said there is a risk the regulatory regime of the DSA could “impose excessive rules with respect to free speech”.

“It’s a worry, I think, here for the people of Europe, but for US technology companies that do business here, the censorship that is potentially coming down the pipe from the DSA is something that is incompatible with both our free speech tradition in America and the commitments that these technology companies have made through diversity of opinions.”

Carr said he wrote to US technology companies regulated by the DSA to find a path forward to make sure they do not face excessive fines while doing business in Europe, but which “also allows them to stay true to America’s free speech tradition”.

“When it comes to US technology companies, if there is an urge in Europe to engage in protectionist regulation to give disparate treatment to US technology companies, the Trump administration has been clear that we’re going to speak up and defend the interests of US businesses.”

Carr said the government of US President Donald Trump would insist on a level and fair playing field, while also noting the same standards apply to the development of AI, which the nation’s Vice President JD Vance recently outlined.

The FCC head also noted it would focus on deregulation of the telecoms sector and push for more spectrum availability.

“We’re also looking to continue to simplify our regulations.”

“We still have a lot of state and local rules in place that make it difficult to build new networks, but we need regulations that make it easier to put new money in new networks rather than simply to get rent off of getting access to ageing legacy networks.”

The FCC plans to auction off AWS-3 spectrum previously awarded to Huawei and ZTE before they were determined to be a threat to national security, with the proceeds pumped into a government rip and replace programme covering the removal of the Chinese vendors’ equipment from US networks.

Carr added the FCC is also looking to free up additional C-Band spectrum.