President-elect Donald Trump tapped Federal Commerce Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to guide the buyer safety and antitrust company, Trump mentioned on social media on Tuesday.
Ferguson, one among two Senate-confirmed Republican FTC commissioners appointed by President Biden, will probably be “the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History,” Trump mentioned.
“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump mentioned on his social media platform.
Ferguson has mentioned the company ought to sort out perceived censorship of conservative viewpoints on-line. If social media platforms collaborate to suppress such views or advertisers coordinate pulling enterprise from platforms similar to Elon Musk’s X, they need to be charged with violating US antitrust legislation, Ferguson has mentioned.
“We must vigorously enforce the antitrust laws against any platforms found to be unlawfully limiting Americans’ ability to exchange ideas freely and openly,” Ferguson mentioned in a current assertion. The company grew to become a political flashpoint below FTC Chair Lina Khan, who promoted antitrust enforcement as a verify on company energy.
Her efforts gained followers amongst some Republicans, together with incoming Vice President JD Vance, however drew criticism as overly aggressive from some antitrust legal professionals and enterprise teams.
Her successor will inherit a full slate of instances towards Massive Tech corporations, a lawsuit towards the three largest pharmacy profit managers, and a minimum of a half-dozen lawsuits by corporations arguing it has outstripped its authority.
It’s unclear whether or not the incoming chair would proceed with unfinished probes, together with into practices at Microsoft that rivals have complained preserve clients from switching to different cloud service suppliers, and potential privateness issues involving OpenAI.
New management may additionally shift course in two main FTC instances towards Amazon. One takes intention at practices the company says preserve sellers sure to its platform and assist Amazon unlawfully dominate the panorama for on-line marketplaces, and one other over practices allegedly meant to trick Prime subscribers out of canceling service.
The brand new FTC chair would additionally oversee a case introduced towards Meta Platforms, then generally known as Fb, in 2020, throughout Trump’s first time period.
The company is looking for to unwind the tech firm’s acquisition of Instagram and Whatsapp. However the decide overseeing the case has forged doubt on whether or not the company can prevail at trial in April.
