House Republicans Interrogate FTCs Khan Over Regulation Of Big Tech
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday defended his aggressive legal strategy against the nation's largest tech companies, after House Republicans accused the agency of being bloated and politicized under President Donald Trump. Joe Biden.
Republicans have accused Lina Khan of "bullying" Twitter since Elon Musk took office, arbitrarily suing big tech companies and, in some cases, refusing to back down. In April, the commission subpoenaed Khan after a grand jury investigation found the agency was harassing Musk for political reasons.
Biden's FTC is "trying to get away from the rules that have made the American economy great" and giving the government unchecked power over business practices, said Jim Jordan, chairman of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee.
Khan dismissed the criticism, arguing that more regulation has become necessary as companies grow and tech conglomerates have the potential to harm the economy and consumers.
"Our antitrust mission is guided by the principle that strict enforcement of antitrust laws is essential to the growth and vitality of our economy, and to our shared prosperity and freedom," Khan said. "However, over the last several decades, they have clearly demonstrated how Americans lose out as markets consolidate and become more competitive."
The hearing is embroiled in various lawsuits against the agency's tech companies, and while Khan, a staunch critic of Big Tech before becoming the agency's chief, has sought, not always successfully, to tighten government regulations on these businesses. and prevent them from developing. . For more.
Khan and the agency suffered a major setback Tuesday when a federal judge refused to block Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of video game company Activision Blizzard. The FTC tried to block the deal, saying it would hurt competition.
US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said the settlement, the largest in the technology industry's history, deserved scrutiny, but the FTC failed to show that it would cause serious harm. The FTC is now appealing their decision.
In a similar case, another judge threw out the FTC's attempt to block Meta's acquisition of virtual reality fitness company Within Unlimited earlier this year.
Republicans have focused on the agency's weak legal record in these antitrust cases.
- Did you lose it on purpose? asked the representative. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., citing an earlier comment by Khan that court leaks would signal to Congress that it needs to update its antitrust laws.
"Absolutely not," Khan replied, though he admitted that "unfortunately, things don't always work out."
Republicans have questioned the wisdom behind the aggressive regulation and whether it could also hurt small businesses. Rep. Darrell Issa of California has criticized the FTC's "turn to the left" since he took office two years ago.
"Shame," Issa said. "The reality is that we are a global market and for some reason you just think about who you want to go to and it doesn't make any sense to you."
As the hearing drew to a close, White House spokesman Michael Kikukawa issued a statement saying Biden nominated Khan because he believed in "fair and vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws."
"Karriga Khan has delivered results for families, consumers, workers, small businesses and entrepreneurs, from protecting our children from the illegal use of their personal data, to making it easier and cheaper for consumers to repair assets. To stopping bad mergers like the mega-fusion,” said Kikukawa.
The FTC also sued Amazon for participating in a years-long effort to enroll consumers in Amazon Prime without permission and make it harder to cancel subscriptions. In a lawsuit filed in federal court last month, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive patterns, known as "dark patterns," to trick customers into signing up for the service.
In addition, Khan and other FTC officials have repeatedly warned that they are also cracking down on harmful AI-related business practices, in part in messages to developers of widely used AI tools like ChatGPT.
Much of the Republican attention has focused on the FTC's actions on Twitter, which the agency is investigating as part of its ongoing oversight of the social media company's privacy and cybersecurity practices. Republican lawmakers said the agency's investigation this spring sought information about internal communications between Musk and reporters he hired, giving them access to internal records to investigate the company's past actions before he took office.
Jordan calls harassing Khan on Twitter an "obsession."
Why am I on Twitter? Jordan asked.
Khan said the agency focused on Twitter's lax privacy and security policies. He noted that the agency had been investigating the platform for years, before Musk's tenure.
The FTC has been tracking the company since Twitter accepted a consent order in 2011 related to serious data breaches. But the agency's concerns have grown since Musk took over the company in October and the mass layoffs.
Twitter, now X Corp. under the parent company, asked a federal court Thursday ahead of a congressional hearing to end that consent order and "limit an investigation that has gotten out of hand and tainted by bias." .
Republicans also criticized Khan for not recusing himself from the Meta case after the company sought his removal due to Khan's earlier defense of major Facebook mergers. He was asked if he had ignored recommendations in that regard, citing an internal agency memo.
“There were no breaches of the Ethics Law,” Khan said, adding that he had no financial problems that would require his disbarment.
Democrats defended Khan's work. Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the panel, told Khan opening the hearing that he hoped Republicans would hold off on the "unfounded and often personal attacks long enough to focus on the importance of their job." ".
Khan, a law professor, was a prominent tech critic when he took over the agency in 2021. The Biden administration saw his appointment as a sign it would be tough for tech companies as they face significant pressure from another country. . regulators and attorney general.
He was a professor at Columbia University Law School and rose to fame for his 2017 scholarly paper as a Yale law student, "The Amazon Antitrust Paradox." This work has helped lay the groundwork for a new way of looking at trust law beyond the impact of corporate market dominance on consumer prices.
And he has Judiciary Committee experience, having served as counsel on the panel's antitrust subcommittee in 2019 and 2020. In that role, he played a key role in a major bipartisan investigation into the market power of tech giants.
Jordan's House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has also sued tech companies for what Republicans call anti-conservative censorship. The commission sued the CEOs of five of the largest tech companies in February in an investigation into content moderation at Big Tech.
Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report. O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
