Facebook says FTC chair should step back from antitrust case

Facebook has requested that Lina Khan, the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission, step back from deciding whether to pursue an antitrust case against the tech group, marking an escalation in the battle between the regulator’s chief and Silicon Valley’s largest companies.

The social media company filed a petition to the FTC on Wednesday, seeking her recusal, citing previous criticisms she has made of Facebook.

The petition is the second such request in two weeks, following a similar request from Amazon, in a sign of how Big Tech has been rattled by Khan’s appointment.

Facebook said in its request that Khan, “well before becoming a commissioner, had already decided the material facts relevant to Facebook’s liability in the commission’s pending antitrust lawsuit and already reached legal conclusions that Facebook was liable under the antitrust laws”.

The FTC did not comment on the petition.

Khan rose to prominence as an academic by criticising the power of large technology companies, and spearheaded a congressional report last year accusing Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple of abusing their market power.

As FTC chair, she is at the forefront of an attempt by the Biden administration to tackle concentrations of corporate power in various sectors, and she is responsible for the FTC’s high-profile case against Facebook, which it accuses of using its market power to crush smaller rivals.

A federal judge last month dismissed the FTC’s complaint, which sought a forced break-up of the company, though he gave the commission a month to file an amended lawsuit if it wished to do so.