On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden installed an energetic critic of Big Tech as a top federal regulator at a time when the industry is under intense pressure from Congress, regulators, and state attorneys general.
The selection of Pakistan-origin legal scholar Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seen as signaling a tough stance towards tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. Khan was sworn in as FTC chair just hours after the Senate confirmed her as one of five members of the commission on a 69-28 vote.
As per The New York Times, Khan was born in London to Pakistani parents who emigrated to the United States when she was 11.
Khan has been a professor at Columbia University Law School and burst onto the antitrust scene with her massive scholarly work in 2017 as a Yale law student, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox”.