Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr posted on X Wednesday that broadcasters must refrain from amplifying or airing fabricated election polls. He cited license requirements that prohibit news distortion and the promotion of broadcast hoaxes. Anna M. Gomez, the commission’s sole Democratic member, countered that stations reporting publicly available polling data in good faith should not face punishment when a poll proves inaccurate. She emphasized that FCC rules on distortion or hoaxes do not apply to legitimate reporting of survey results.

The warning follows an admission by a group calling itself Wedgewood Polls, which disclosed in a social media post that it had released fabricated polls during midterm election cycles as an experiment to gauge media response. The group’s actions were brought to light after FiftyPlusOne, a poll-tracking site, sought comment for an investigation. Unlike a similar incident involving a fake firm named Median Strategies earlier in the summer, Wedgewood’s polls had been incorporated into several polling averages. It remains unclear whether any FCC-regulated broadcasters actually aired the fabricated data.

Carr’s statement marks the latest instance of the chairman scrutinizing content distributed over public airwaves. Since assuming leadership at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, he has opened multiple inquiries into media organizations and criticized programming he labeled as news distortion, often invoking a rarely used agency rule. While the FCC’s jurisdiction extends to individual broadcast stations — such as a local NBC affiliate — rather than national networks or cable channels like CNN or Fox News, Carr has pursued investigations into companies including Disney-owned ABC. The agency previously opened an early review of eight ABC broadcast licenses, citing concerns over diversity practices, a move currently contested in court as exceeding the commission’s authority.

Legal scholars have questioned the scope of Carr’s approach. Enrique Armijo, a law professor at Elon University specializing in First Amendment issues, noted that a recent judicial ruling rejected claims of “fake poll” fraud and affirmed that the FCC lacks authority to sanction broadcasters for reporting on such data. He described Carr’s actions as an attempt to discourage coverage of polling that reflects poorly on the administration. Olivier Sylvain, a communications law professor at Fordham University, characterized the chairman’s post as inconsistent with principles of free speech and a free press, suggesting it may be motivated by declining approval ratings within the administration.

Representatives for Carr did not provide additional comment beyond the content shared on his social media platform.