Biden loads the records with Big Tech’s most prominent critics

Nearly two months after his presidency, it finally becomes clear how Joe Biden intends to approach the technology sector. And it looks very different from the Obama administration’s approach.

The selection of two major critics of the Big Tech companies, Lina Khan and Tim Wu, for key roles in the administration seems to indicate that Biden is seriously scrutinizing giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The last two of those companies are already facing federal antitrust cases filed under the previous government.

Biden’s reported selection of Khan as a candidate for the Federal Trade Commission leaves little doubt that the government is hoping for robust enforcement of antitrust and other regulations in the tech space. Politico reported on Tuesday that the government was in the late stages of vetting the candidate this week, sources cited. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the report.

Before taking up her current role as a lecturer in law students at Columbia University, Khan worked for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, where she helped compile the nearly 450-page report accusing the four technology giants of maintaining the monopoly position. and suggested a major overhaul of the antitrust laws. their enforcement.

Khan, 32, gained prominence in antitrust scholarships after writing “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” as a law student at Yale University in 2017, in which she advocated a more comprehensive understanding of how US antitrust laws can be applied to a company like Amazon. While courts have often relied on the much-discussed consumer welfare standard for years to assess whether an antitrust violation has occurred (often linked to the price of goods and services to consumers), Khan argued that the standard is ill-equipped to assess potential damage caused by online platforms.

Khan wrote that predatory pricing can be uniquely in the interest of platforms, as they are often rewarded for the pursuit of growth rather than profit. From the outside, this appears to benefit consumers by lowering prices, although it would undermine legitimate competitors that could be foreclosed from the market. She also argued that platforms can control “essential infrastructure” on which competitors become dependent, allowing the platforms to exploit information against rivals.

In addition to Khan’s expected appointment, the government announced last week that Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, would join the National Economic Council to work on technology and competition policy. Wu helped popularize the idea that major tech companies may need to be broken up to revive competition through his 2018 book, “The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.” He also coined the term “net neutrality,” which eventually sparked a major debate as to whether ISPs should have the ability to slow down or speed up Internet services.

Prior to the revelation of these two picks, tech critics had been wary of how Biden would ultimately select his best tech enforcers. Progressive groups warned the administration not to select staff members or nominees with Big Tech ties, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who was rumored to be debated for an administrative role.

The fear also came from the Obama administration’s reputation as a technology-friendly White House that also failed to pursue sweeping enforcement action against the technology giants. Still, many expected that Biden’s approach would likely be different, if only because public sentiment toward the tech sector has changed dramatically since 2016.

To be sure, Biden must still hold the highest antitrust role with the Justice Department and the fifth vacant seat in the FTC, assuming his nominee to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who is a current FTC commissioner, is confirmed. But Khan and Wu’s selection for key roles seems to send a strong signal to progressives as well as the Big Tech companies that the administration will not flinch after strong enforcement.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: How the US Antitrust Act Works and What It Means for Big Tech