Biden Moves to Take On Big Tech

His pick for antitrust chief will signal how aggressively he’ll challenge monopoly power

- By Joshua Green

Filling out Joe Biden’s administration was expected to be a contentious process. Every big job would spark a battle between the progressive and centrist camps vying for control of the Democratic Party. It hasn’t turned out that way: For the most part, Biden has managed to navigate intraparty tensions by finding broadly acceptable candidates, such as Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and to maintain party peace.

But one job looms that can’t elide the progressive-moderate split and carries enormous stakes for the future of Big Tech and American business generally: the Department of Justice’s antitrust chief. Biden’s choice for this role will signal whether his administration is going to try to limit growing corporate consolidation, especially among technology companies, or, as some critics fear, follow the more deferential path of the Obama administration.

“That pick is going to be the most important thing that Biden does on antitrust,” says Daniel Crane, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

The president’s appointments to the Federal Trade Commission will be significant as well. Biden plans to nominate Lina Khan, a Columbia legal scholar and proponent of muscular antitrust enforcement, to serve as a member of the FTC, Politico reported on March 9.