Who is Lina Khan, the outgoing FTC chair who took on Silicon Valley? The Biden-appointee challenged Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta during her tenure, but will reportedly resign soon

Jan 31 , 2025

Lina Khan, the outgoing head of the Federal Trade Commission, sent a memo to staff saying she will step down in the coming weeks. Photo: Getty Images

Lina Khan, the outgoing chair of the Federal Trade Commission, was appointed by US President Joe Biden to lead the antitrust agency and protect consumers against big tech companies forming monopolies

She has been called the voice of the “hipster antitrust” movement, with billionaire Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla saying she is not a “rational human being” and that she “doesn’t understand business”. But Lina Khan, head of the Federal Trade Commission and an associate professor at Columbia Law School, is no stranger to criticism – and certainly doesn’t shrink from the barbs thrown her way.

Nevertheless, in the coming weeks, Khan will reportedly resign from the commission she has been heading up since 2021, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Lina Khan at the American Federation of Teachers convention last July. Photo: @linakhanFTC/X

In 2017, Khan published an article about Amazon in the Yale Law Journal, in which she queried whether the world could trust behemoth companies. It positioned her as an enemy of big tech; then when US President Joe Biden asked her, in 2021, to chair the FTC, an agency with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars and more than 1,000 employees, she faced Silicon Valley head on.

In what some have called a David and Goliath battle, Khan has been fearless in her pursuit of ensuring more regulation of and accountability for monopolies. Here’s how she has changed the landscape for dominant businesses.

What does the FTC role involve?

Lina Khan made it her mission to go in hard against monopolies in the interests of consumers. Photo: Reuters

Khan, 35, was appointed FTC chair in 2021. Per The Guardian, the FTC aims to promote consumer protection and antitrust, or competition, laws in the United States and is responsible for preventing deals that could harm consumers. Before Khan’s appointment, the FTC was often criticised for allowing industries to merge, leading to fewer companies holding monopolies on critical services. According to Forbes, Khan’s appointment reset the competition agenda, leading to resistance from major companies.

During her tenure, the FTC has brought lawsuits against companies including Meta and Amazon; blocked deals by businesses such as software company Nvidia and supermarket chain Kroger; and worked to enforce privacy protection and children’s online safety.

Why has she angered big companies?

The Guardian has referred to Khan as Biden’s “most high-profile warrior”. As president, Biden repeatedly bemoaned the monopolisation of American business and enabled Khan to scrutinise big tech.