Lina Khan, a 32-year-old Columbia Law professor and strong advocate for updating antitrust laws to deal with Big Tech companies, was recently sworn in as chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Her confirmation came just days after Congress introduced five antitrust bills specifically targeting Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook (the so-called “Big Four”) for alleged anticompetitive practices.
The FTC launched more than 40 antitrust lawsuits during the pandemic, including a landmark case against Facebook over its illegal monopolization of social network services. Khan will be joining an agency juggling a monumental lawsuit with very few resources.
Leaked audio from Mark Zuckerberg in 2019 indicated that Facebook wouldn’t go down easy, with the social media mogul stating, “I don’t want to have a major lawsuit against our own government… But look, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.”
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