Lina Khan is the most feared person in Silicon Valley. The 34-year-old lawyer is the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and she has made it her mission to crack down on the tech industry’s anticompetitive practices.
Khan has already taken aim at some of the biggest names in tech, including Amazon, Google, and Facebook. She has sued Amazon for abusing its market power in the e-commerce market, and she has opened an investigation into Google’s search practices.
Khan’s aggressive enforcement of antitrust laws has made her a target of the tech industry. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has called her “a dangerous radical,” and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said that she is “trying to rewrite the rules of the internet.”
But Khan is undeterred. She believes that the tech industry has become too powerful and that it is necessary to break up some of the biggest companies in order to protect consumers.
“The tech industry has been allowed to operate with impunity for too long,” Khan said in a recent speech. “It’s time to put an end to their anticompetitive practices and restore competition to the market.”
Khan’s crusade against the tech industry has been met with mixed reactions. Some people applaud her for taking on the big tech companies, while others worry that she is going too far.
Those who support Khan argue that she is a necessary corrective to the tech industry’s unchecked power. They point to the fact that the tech giants have become so dominant that they now control a vast majority of the market in their respective industries. This dominance allows them to stifle competition, raise prices, and engage in other anticompetitive practices that harm consumers.
Those who oppose Khan argue that she is overreacting and that her actions could have unintended consequences. They worry that breaking up the tech giants could lead to job losses and stifle innovation. They also argue that Khan’s focus on antitrust is misplaced and that she should be focusing on other issues, such as data privacy and cybersecurity.
Only time will tell whether Khan will be successful in her efforts to rein in the tech industry. But one thing is for sure: she is a force to be reckoned with.
