Lina Khan Has Been a Terrible FTC Chair

Eric Seufert, in a thread on Threads:

I’ve been critical of the FTC’s strategy under Khan; in a recent podcast episode, I likened the FTC to the Washington Generals of technology antitrust. As conveyed in the Commission’s report by the FTC’s own staff, Khan seems to be engaged in an activist crusade moored to a very specific ideological worldview — “Big is de facto Bad” — that has resulted in a series of defeats.

The excesses of Big Tech should be constrained. But that has yet to be achieved with the cases brought by the FTC, many of which, to my mind, are predicated on a confused understanding of the way that consumers engage with and benefit from technology. I think this is especially true concerning the economics of digital advertising and the freemium economy more broadly.

Unless I’m missing something, under Khan’s leadership the FTC has accomplished nothing. It’s all for show. She ought to be one of the first appointees to be replaced if Biden wins another term. (Merrick Garland first, though. An ineffective but showboating FTC chair isn’t actively harming the country; Garland — obsequious to the beltway cult of Both Sidesism — has been an outright disaster for democracy itself.)

★ Wednesday, 28 February 2024