The debate over whether allegedly inflammatory or false information spread online should be freely allowed has surged in the wake of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week. Notably, the murder raised questions about the extent to which social media algorithms have fueled political polarization and encouraged violence against people holding differing ideologies.

In the wake of the shooting, Carr this week called for the country to remain committed to First Amendment principles. Resorting to censorship in an effort to prevent violence or control the distribution of allegedly dangerous or false information is a backward step reminiscent of actions taken by those in power during COVID-19 and other fractious recent events to control public discourse, Carr argued.

“We saw individual Americans participating in the digital town square that were getting censored purely for protected First Amendment speech, for diversity of viewpoints on religious or medical issues,” he said.

“I think we saw a really dangerous bent towards censorship, particularly during COVID,” Carr added. “Anytime you have a situation in which there’s an increase in government control, you necessarily see a decrease in speech, because the two of those are counterweights.”

His position flies in the face of mounting national efforts to target people making social media posts accused of celebrating violence, as well as calls for big tech companies such as Meta, X, and Google to further target allegedly concerning content on their platforms.

Carr praised such companies on Tuesday for stepping away from a culture of “censorship.” He made the comments as several leaders in the tech industry have reversed course on a number of “fact-checking” policies targeting “disinformation” in recent years. Those companies include Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which controls Facebook and Instagram, and X, which was formerly known as Twitter under Jack Dorsey’s control before self-proclaimed free speech absolutist Elon Musk acquired the platform in 2022.

“I’ve been really pleased, frankly, over the last couple of years, where a lot of social media companies have embraced or re-embraced the idea of free speech online,” Carr said. “I think Elon Musk and X had a great deal to do with that. I was pleased to see Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook join him, but clearly there’s more we can do.”

The FCC chairman, nominated by Trump in November 2024 to lead the country’s leading agency regulating communications, conceded there are some cases in which online speech is possibly unprotected by the First Amendment. Those cases included posts that incite violence, Carr said, adding that it is “a relatively small category of speech” and there are “existing laws on the books that deal with that.”

Carr was specifically pressed on the graphic video circulating on the internet of Kirk being shot. Social media companies have faced calls from political figures to remove the footage from their platforms, similarly to a gruesome surveillance feed depicting a Ukrainian refugee being stabbed to death in North Carolina that was released earlier this month.

FLORIDA ISSUES ‘HIGHER STANDARD’ WARNING AFTER TEACHER FIRED FOR CELEBRATING KIRK DEATH

Carr declined to say he believed that platforms should be required to remove disturbing images.

“I don’t think it’s so much that the video was horrific and violent,” he said. “I think it was the act itself that was horrific and violent. And again, I think we should be giving people, individuals the tools to curate their own feeds and be in control of what it is that they want to see. But obviously, it was a very, very significant event, and there was a lot of focus and attention.”