News

The Senate Commerce Committee approved Lina Khan’s nomination to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in a voice vote on Wednesday, setting the stage for an advocate of breaking up tech giants like Google (GOOGL.O) to join the agency.

Khan, a veteran of the FTC and Capitol Hill who teaches at Columbia Law School, is highly respected by progressive antitrust thinkers who have risen in prominence as they push for tougher antitrust laws or tougher enforcement of existing law.

Her nomination was moved forward on a voice vote with four Republicans voting no: Senators Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, Dan Sullivan and Cynthia Lummis.

Despite that, Khan won support of the top Republican on the panel, Senator Roger Wicker with a caveat.

“I believe she is focused on addressing one of the most pressing issues of the day, reining in the big social media platforms,” he said.

He added, however, that he was concerned if the FTC acted with too heavy a regulatory hand that it “could have a negative effect on the economy and undermine free market principles.”

Khan was on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, which wrote a massive report last year that sharply criticized the major tech companies, Amazon Inc (AMZN.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Alphabet’s Google.

The FTC has already filed a lawsuit asking for Facebook to be forced to divest two big subsidiaries.

Khan has argued, including in a 2019 article in the Columbia Law Review, that the government should consider breaking up tech companies which both operate a dominant platform, like Amazon, and participate in that market.

The FTC works with the Justice Department to enforce antitrust law and investigates allegations of deceptive advertising.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.