By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Lina Khan for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission. On Tuesday, the NY Times reported, based on information from a source, that Biden would appoint Ms. Khan, a law professor and primary critic for the tech industry’s power. In 2016, Khan had penned an article in the Yale Law Journal accusing online Retail giant, Amazon, of abusing monopoly power. The pending nomination suggests that President Biden seems to be inclined towards forceful action against tech titans including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The appointment will require senate confirmation.
Last week, the Biden administration had similarly announced that Tim Wu, another top tech critic, would join the National Economic Council as a special assistant for the president for technology and competition policy.
As per the Times, Ms. Khan, an associate professor at Columbia Law School, would become one of the three Democratic members on F.T.C., which has a total of five seats. Khan, who received her J.D. from Yale Law School, recently worked as legal counsel for the House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee and helped with an investigation into the tech giants’ monopoly power. The resulting report advocated aggressive changes to antitrust laws. Previously, Khan had worked as an aide to Rohit Chopra, a member of the Federal Trade Commission who also supports her antitrust policy. The FTC is already suing Facebook for alleged antitrust violations, and it has also begun an investigation against Amazon.
The appointment was lauded by several left-leaning activist groups, who have said the commission has been slack in allowing tech giants to expand. “The F.T.C. has failed to take on corporate abuses of power including rampant antitrust violations, privacy intrusions, data security breaches and mergers, and Khan’s appointment as a commissioner at the agency hopefully will herald a new day,” Public Citizen said in an earlier statement, when the appointment was being rumored.
Conservative voices also emerged, contending the expected nomination. “Her views on antitrust enforcement are also wildly out of step with a prudent approach to the law,” said Senator Mike Lee from Utah, a leading Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee. “Nominating Ms. Khan would signal that President Biden intends to put ideology and politics ahead of competent antitrust enforcement, which would be gravely disappointing at a time when it is absolutely critical that we have strong and effective leadership at the enforcement agencies.”
