Lina Khan, an antitrust pioneer and critic of big tech, was appointed as the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US antitrust watchdog. Khan was first nominated by the President for Commissioner of FTC on March 22 and the Senate confirmed her on Tuesday by a vote of 69–28. "I look forward to working with my colleagues to protect the public from corporate abuse," Khan said in a press release. The FTC is headed by five Commissioners who each serve seven-year terms and the President chooses one of them to act as Chair. The principal missions of the FTC are to enforce US antitrust law, promote competition, and protect consumers. https://twitter.com/linamkhan/status/1404841168182169602?s=20 Khan's résumé Prior to being sworn in as FTC Chair, Khan was an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School where she taught and wrote about antitrust law and the antimonopoly tradition. Her scholarship on antitrust policy has influenced important public debates on the topic. In particular, her 2017 Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox paper, which argues that current antitrust laws are deficient and that new statutes are necessary to prevent anti-competitive behaviour from online platforms like Amazon, pushed her to prominence. Khan's appointment comes days after US lawmakers debuted five bipartisan draft bills that are aimed at curbing the power of tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. These bills are the product of the 16-month long investigation by the House Judiciary Committee — one that Khan played a significant role in — that found big tech companies enjoy monopoly power.…
