Biden to nominate tech critic Lina Khan to lead FTC

US President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he would nominate antitrust advocate and monopoly critic Lina Khan for commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Khan will be the third Democratic commissioner with the FTC overseeing privacy, data security and more.

Khan has previously provided counsel to the US House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, aiding in the investigation into digital markets like Google, Apple and others. Khan is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches and writes about antitrust law, infrastructure industries law and the anti-monopoly tradition.

Read more: FTC orders Apple, Google, other tech giants to hand over acquisition info

Khan also served as legal director at the Open Markets Institute — an organization that uses research and journalism to combat corporate monopoly power. Prior to the antitrust panel, Khan and fellow commissioner Rohit Chopra wrote an essay about the need for clearly defined rules for companies and violation of competition laws.

“I congratulate Lina Khan on her nomination,” Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, acting Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, said in a statement Monday. “Her creative energy, groundbreaking antitrust work, and passion for the FTC’s mission make her an excellent nominee. I wish her a speedy confirmation.”