Michigan State University (MSU) School of Law professor Adam Candeub has been appointed the General Counsel of the FCC. He joined the university faculty in 2004. Before entering academics, he was an FCC attorney advisor in the former Common Carrier Bureau and the Media Bureau.
Candeub is known for his involvement in Project 2025 and criticism of Big Tech, according to Semafor. Candeub was an architect of a late effort in President Donald Trump’s first term to revoke some legal protections for social media.
“Adam is a rare talent — he has fought fearlessly against Big Tech censorship and has had a successful career both as an effective telecom litigator and academic,” Carr told Semafor. “He will be an indispensable asset both to me and the FCC as we deliver great results for the American people.”
In 2019, he joined the Trump Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary at NTIA and assumed the role of Acting Assistant Secretary. Candeub pressed the FCC to narrow the platform protections of Google, Meta and their rivals around moderating content, in particular, notes Semafor. That effort ended with Trump’s defeat, but Candeub told Politico last year that he was “certainly hoping” Trump would revive the project.
“It has nothing to do with being anyone’s censor. It’s about establishing normal rules of liability that every other business in the world has to deal with,” Candeub said.
According to his MSU bio, from 1998 to 2000, Professor Candeub was a litigation associate for the Washington D.C. firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and also has served as a corporate associate with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, also in Washington, D.C. After his stint at NTIA, he was appointed Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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