Biden nominates Big Tech critic Lina Khan to the FTC

President Joe Biden picked Lina Khan to join the Federal Trade Commission on Monday.  Lina Khan is one of tech’s most ardent critics. For Democrats and progressives, Khan’s nomination indicates that the Biden administration may be the toughest one in history when it comes to tech.

Senate antitrust committee leader Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said on Monday that they need all hands on deck as they work to take on some of the biggest monopolies in the world. “President Biden is making his commitment to competition clear,” Klobuchar added.

At the beginning of the year, the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said to expect more tech scrutiny from Biden. Psaki said that the president stands up to the abuse of power and that includes the abuse of power from big technology companies and their executives.

Khan and other anti-tech progressives will be working against decades of inactivity.

Khan would only be one vote on a commission of five with a worn-out history of sorry settlements and deals with companies like Facebook and Google. There are concerns considering if FTC will have the reserves or legal authority to take on Big Tech.

With Khan taking Democratic Commissioner Rohit Chopra’s place, Biden has one more seat to fill before Democrats have a 3-2 majority at the agency. For the interim, Acting Chair Rebecca Slaughter is leading the FTC, but Biden hasn’t declared who he’ll officially nominate to lead the agency. It’s unclear if Biden’s FTC chair will be as skeptical of tech’s market power as Khan and Slaughter.