Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, testifies at a Senate Committee hearing in Washington, DC
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty images
Big Tech critic and antitrust hawk Tim Wu joins the Biden government to work on technology and competition policy in the National Economic Council, he announced on Friday.
The hiring indicates that the Biden administration is serious about competition policy and is likely to be viewed favorably by progressives hoping for better antitrust enforcement, especially against tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Wu’s writing has been instrumental in furthering the idea that major tech companies should be broken up to revive competition, most notably through his 2018 book, “The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.”
Wu has helped shape some of the most important debates about technology over the past decade. He coined the term “net neutrality” to describe the idea that internet service providers should not distinguish between different types of online communication. The Federal Communications Commission enacted a net neutrality rule under Obama that was rolled back under the next administration, though Biden’s FCC could revive the rule again.
Wu recently taught anti-trust law at Columbia University and previously worked at the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Trade Commission, and at the NEC under President Barack Obama.
However, Biden has yet to fill out key antitrust enforcement roles in his records. His choice of the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division will either reinforce the idea that he is ready to crack down on the tech companies and concentration of power or undermine it. News reports about Biden’s possible choices for those roles range from progressives who align with Wu’s views on competition to those who have started working for or advising the tech companies themselves, which critics fear will be too lenient on them.
Improving regulation for the tech companies has been a rare unifying topic between Democrats and Republicans in recent years. When House Democrats came out last year with their lengthy report on the alleged anti-competitive behavior of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, several key Republicans said they agreed with the report’s main allegations, if not the exact proposed legislative changes that were included in it.
It has also been a common thread between Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, among whom the DOJ and the FTC have filed antitrust cases against Google and Facebook respectively. The Biden government is expected to pursue these lawsuits and even expand their scope.
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