Impose transparency rules on Big Tech platforms

Research notes

Chairman Carr has argued in speeches and op-eds that Big Tech should face a transparency rule like the broadband one, but no docket, notice of inquiry or petition followed inside the window. Verified negatively three ways: conditions[term]="Big Tech" across all Federal Register types since 2025-01-20 returns three documents (an FTC consent order, a PTAB practice rule and an H-1B lottery rule, none on point); no FCC document in fr-rule/fr-prorule/fr-notice has a title matching Big Tech, content moderation, terms of service, appeals process or social media; and presidential-actions.ndjson has nothing on Big Tech or Section 230.

Leads, not Evidence. The FTC’s February 2025 inquiry into “tech censorship” is a different agency taking a different kind of step — a public request for comment, not transparency rules — so it does not move this ask under playbook §3b. Chairman Carr’s letter to Big Tech companies about the EU Digital Services Act lives at www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/Chairman-Letter-to-Big-Tech-on-Digital-Services-Act.pdf, which answers 403 to both curl and WebFetch; it concerns foreign censorship demands, not a domestic transparency rule, and was not opened.

Congress. The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 3292, introduced 2025-12-01) would put researcher-access and disclosure duties on platforms; it was read twice and referred and has had no further action. The Quote asks the FCC to act, not Congress.

A fourth, direct negative, and the correction that made it possible (2026-09-03, read-queue ticket 04). www.fcc.gov is not walled — it opens to the full browser header set — so the Commission’s own index of what it has initiated could be read at first hand: https://www.fcc.gov/proposed-rulemakings, 96k characters, 138 dated entries running 2023-04-25 to 2026-06-09. Across all 138 there are zero occurrences of “Section 230” and zero of “Big Tech”; the single string “230” in the page is the docket number DA 24-1230, on space-launch frequency coordination. Corroborated the same day against the Federal Register API: "section 230" since 2025-01-20 returns four documents, none of them from the FCC (two Sentencing Guidelines notices, an SSA cost-of-living determination and CEQ’s NEPA rule removal).

A warning for the next pass, because the titles collide. The FCC did open a transparency proceeding in the window — FCC 25-28, 2025-05-27, “FCC Lays Groundwork to Identify Foreign Adversary Control in Communications Industry / FCC Seeks Comment on Promoting Transparency Regarding Foreign Adversary Control”, and the Report and Order that followed it, FCC 26-2. They impose ownership-attestation duties on FCC licensees, not disclosure duties on platforms. They belong to #2203 and must not be borrowed here; this is exactly the “an event carries the same burden as the ask” trap §3b names.