Biden loads administration with Big Tech’s most prominent critics

Nearly two months after his presidency, it finally becomes clear how Joe Biden intends to approach the technology sector. And it looks very different from the approach under the Obama administration.

The selection of two big critics of the Big Tech companies, Lina Khan and Tim Wu, for key roles in the administration seems to indicate that Biden is serious about thoroughly investigating giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The latter two of these companies are already facing federal antitrust lawsuits filed under the previous administration.

Biden’s designated choice of Khan as nominee to the Federal Trade Commission leaves little room for doubt that the government hopes to see strong application of antitrust laws and other regulations in the technology space. Politico reported on Tuesday that the government was in the late stages of judging the nominee this week, citing sources. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

Before appointing her current role as a law student at Columbia University, Khan worked for the House Antitrust Subcommittee, helping to compile the nearly 450-page report in which he accused the four technological giants of it. that they maintain the monopolistic power and proposed a major overhaul of the antitrust legislation their enforcement.

Khan, 32, gained notoriety in antitrust after writing ‘Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox’ in 2017 as a law student at Yale University, advocating for a broader understanding of how U.S. antitrust laws can be applied to a company like Amazon. word. Although courts have for years often relied on the much-discussed standard for ‘consumer welfare’ to assess whether an antitrust violation has taken place (often linked to the price of goods and services to consumers), Khan argued that the standard is not equipped to not evaluate potential damage through online platforms.

Khan wrote that robbery prices can be unique in the interest of platforms because they are often rewarded for chasing growth instead of profit. From the outside, it may seem to benefit consumers by lowering prices, although it will undermine legitimate competitors that could be cut from the market. She also argued that platforms can be dependent on “essential infrastructure” on which competitors depend, enabling the platforms to leverage information against competitors.

In addition to the expected nomination of Khan, the administration announced last week that Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, will join the National Economic Council to work on technology and competition policy. Wu helped popularize the idea that the most important technology enterprises might need to be broken up to strengthen competition through his book ‘The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age’ from 2018. He also coined the term ‘net neutrality’ created, which eventually sparked a major debate over whether Internet service providers would have the ability to slow down or speed up Internet services.

Prior to the unveiling of these two selections, technology critics have remained cautious about how Biden would ultimately choose its best technology enforcers. Progressive groups have warned the administration not to select staff members or nominees with Big Tech ties, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who was allegedly being considered for an administrative role.

The fear also stems from the Obama administration’s reputation as a tech-friendly White House that also failed to institute major enforcement actions against the tech giants. Yet many people expected that Biden’s approach would probably differ, if only because public sentiment towards the technology sector has fluctuated drastically since 2016.

To be sure, Biden still has to play the leading antitrust role at the Justice Department and the fifth vacant seat in the FTC, assuming his nominee for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who is currently an FTC commissioner, is confirmed. . But the choice of Khan and Wu for key roles seems to send a strong signal to both progressive and the Big Tech companies that the government will not back down from strong enforcement.

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