Michael O'Rielly is a former commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent agency of the United States government.

[1][5] On August 3, 2020, the White House announced that President Trump was withdrawing O'Rielly's nomination to another term after Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Jim Inhofe said he would put a hold on the nomination and after O'Rielly expressed reservations about the FCC's authority to limit social media companies' legal protections.

He then served as a Professional Staff Member on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives from 1998 to 2003, and Telecommunications Policy Analyst from 1995 to 1998.

The White House had drafted the Executive Order in May, after Twitter had applied fact-checking labels to two of the President's tweets where he alleged widespread voter fraud by the Democratic Party.

Like it or not, the First Amendment's protections apply to corporate entities..."[15] Five days after the speech, without offering any additional information or a documented reason, Trump announced that he rescinded O'Rielly's nomination.