Lina Khan Anointed New ‘Sheriff’ of Silicon Valley in a Rare Feat of Bipartisanship
- The appointment of the Pakistani American to the FTC “marks the beginning of the end of an era of lawlessness for powerful corporations.”
Miracles still happen in an extremely polarized Washington. In the evenly split Senate, 32-year-old Pakistani American was confirmed to the Federal Trade Commission. The vote was 69-28, symbolizing the consensus in both the parties of the need to rein in the behemoths in the Silicon Valley. The significance of the depth of bipartisan support for her candidacy can be measured by the fact that the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Merrick Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit with mere 3 Republican votes.
Lina Khan has earned her reputation as a crusader against Big Tech after she penned an article in 2017 while she was still a law student at Columbia titled, “Amazon’s antitrust paradox.” In the paper, Khan argued that the existing anti-trust laws are not equipped to rein in the monopolistic tendencies of the tech giants like Amazon, Google, Apple and others.
Khan, who is an associate professor at Columbia Law School, becomes one of the youngest commissioners in the FTC’s history. She had earlier apprenticed as a legal advisor to FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra.
During her confirmation hearing, according to the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Khan “signaled she would take a tough line on regulating tech giants. She said that in the past few years, new evidence has come to light showing there were missed opportunities for enforcement actions against tech companies under the Obama administration. She also said new findings show the FTC must be much more vigilant when it comes to large acquisitions in digital markets.”
Post also adds, “Khan previously worked as a counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, where she helped lead an investigation into the tech giants. That probe’s findings of monopoly-style tactics and anti-competitive behavior at Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon gave rise to the recent bills introduced by House lawmakers.”
As reported earlier her confirmation will create a 3-2 Democratic majority at the FTC, with Khan, Rohit Chopra, and Rebecca Slaughter (who currently serves as Acting Chair.) Khan will be the 18th woman to serve as FTC commissioner, and the third Asian-American Pacific Islander after her former boss, Rohit Chopra, and Commissioner Dennis Yao, a Democrat nominated to the agency by President George H.W. Bush.
“Her presence on the FTC marks the beginning of the end of an era of lawlessness for powerful corporations that they’ve enjoyed at the expense of workers, smaller businesses and democracy,” the Post quoted Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, as saying.