Nine Information Economy Policy Reversals Coming to a Marketplace Near You!

          Presidential elections have real impacts arriving quickly.  I think the following changed policies and strategies will happen fast, because the glidepath is both well-lit and pre-planned.

1)       Low Earth Orbiting carriers, like Starlink, will qualify for universal service funding.  The FCC, under new management, will ignore any previous qualms about Starlink’s cost, bit rate, reliability, and other shortcomings compared to terrestrial options.  This means Starlink will qualify for over $800 million in universal service funding subsidies.  Elon Musk is getting quite a return on his presidential election investment.

2)       The FCC has a playbook it will follow to the letter. See https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-28.pdf. The Heritage Foundation has commissioned the generation of a comprehensive list of deliverables that will be implemented quickly, regardless whether President Trump has read any of Project 2025.  This executive delegates large portions of governance.

3)       The author of the FCC chapter, Commissioner Brendan Carr, will become Chairman. Just before the election, he claimed NBC had violated the statutory obligation to provide “equal time” to candidate Trump when Saturday Night Live had a skit that included a cameo appearance by Kamala Harris. 

Depending on your political preferences, Commissioner Carr effectively channels Trumpian initiatives, or seems intent on triggering headlines rather than recommending measured compliance with the law. At least for the equal time complaint, even Fox News reported that NBC quickly and fully performed its notification and time offer requirements. See https://www.foxnews.com/media/nbc-files-equal-time-notice-harris-snl-cameo-following-backlash.

4)       Public interest regulatory requirements will fade into the sunset.  Expect the FCC to remove “regulatory underbrush” that heretofore have established now minor limits on national and local market dominance. Broadcasting becomes a toaster with sound and pictures as suggested in 1981 by a former FCC Chairman, Mark Fowler. See https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Fowler.

5)       Relaxed antitrust scrutiny, possibly eliminating the FCC’s review of mergers and acquisition parallel to what the Justice Department does.

6)       I expect Executive Branch agencies, including Defense, Homeland Security, NASA, Commerce, and the FAA, to lose the upper hand in spectrum sharing and relinquishment negotiations. A visible, vocal, and provocative Chairman Carr, will be able to push back on Executive Branch agency spectrum possessiveness, perhaps with some sort of Presidential blessing.

7)       Channeling former President Richard Nixon, see https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2017/trumps-threat-to-yank-tv-licenses-looks-a-lot-like-a-nixon-move-heres-why/, President Trump already has articulated the desire to sanction broadcast networks for assorted sins.  See https://www.brookings.edu/articles/donald-trump-has-threatened-to-shut-down-broadcasters-but-can-he/.

          President Trump probably will not be able to generate a passive and pliable news media by supporting a substantial deregulatory agenda at the FCC, while preserving the chilling effect of potential regulatory sanctions.  However, this tension will generate chaos that could extend to the issue of social network regulation and government-imposed sanctions for conservative bias, notwithstanding the First Amendment.

6)       More Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt when Congress does not provide legislative specificity as required by the Supreme Court.  The abandonment of judicial deference to regulatory agency expertise, and the heightened expectation that Congress provide explicit statutory mandates, will create a backlog even a Republican managed legislature cannot avoid.

7)       The Executive Branch will embrace artificial intelligence in possibly creepy ways.  It is possible that generative AI will be used to evaluate the past performance of individual government employees in terms of “team player” affinity to the Project 2025 playbook.

8)       While previously leery of cryptocurrency, President Trump will reward his Silicon Valley benefactors with Executive Branch endorsements.

9)       Lastly, I expect Chicago School, libertarian doctrine to become gospel truth.  Even though we know free does not mean without costs, the Chicago School mandarins equate enhanced consumer welfare with reduced out of pocket costs.  The Trump administration and like-minded judges will ignore quite harmful impacts to individual and society that are not readily quantified.