President Joe Biden has selected lawyer and frequent critic of Google parent company Alphabet to pass the United States Department of Justice ’s Antitrust Division , the White HouseannouncedTuesday . If sanction , Kanter would join the Biden administration ’s robust legal squad that ’s poised to combat Silicon Valley ’s enormous securities industry power .
As head of the DOJ Antitrust Division , Kanter would oversee department antimonopoly lawsuits and have the top executive to help block mergers take for anticompetitive . This would include a causa the DOJbrought against Googlein October over its domination in the digital ad market , as well as aprobeinto Apple ’s App Store policies .
While Congress remains bitterly partizan , Kanter ’s nominating speech is reportedly seen as a heady move , as he ’s considered afavoriteamong both progressives and some conservatives who think tech giant have conglomerate too much world power .

Photo: Jessica Hill (AP)
“ Jonathan Kanter is a magisterial antimonopoly lawyer with over 20 years of experience , ” the White House said in a press spill . “ Throughout his vocation , Kanter has also been a leading advocate and expert in the effort to promote stiff and meaningful antimonopoly enforcement and competition policy . ”
Kanter did not straightaway reply to a request for comment .
Kanter ’s nomination rounds out the Biden administration ’s slate of top antimonopoly officials . Chief among them is Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan , a Columbia Law School professor who , prior to joining the FTC , criticized Amazon for what she deemed anticompetitive practices . Her earlier oeuvre prompt bothAmazonandFacebookto requirement that she recuse herself from any lawsuit involving either company on the basis that she is biased against them . A third Biden administration physical body , Tim Wu — who also influence as a law prof at Columbia and isknownas a critic of Big Tech — currently serves as a special assistant to the president overseeing technology and competition policy at the National Economic Council .
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Previously the carbon monoxide gas - chair of antitrust practice at Paul , Weiss , Rifkind , Wharton & Garrison LLP , one of the gravid practice of law house in the U.S. , Kanter recently co - found his own business firm , the Kanter Law Group , which specialize in antitrust event . According toPolitico , Kanter antecedently represented companies that sought antimonopoly action against Google , including Yelp and Microsoft . The choice represents a sodding contrast toMakan Delrahim — the Trump governing body ’s selection for the job in 2017 — who worked in private law fight monopolies against antitrust natural process before joining the DOJ .
In addition to naming Big Tech critics to key position in his administration , Biden of late signed asweeping executive director orderthat directly targets major technical school firms like Amazon , Facebook , and Google . Among the72 initiativeslaid out in the executive ordering are directive to sovereignty in data collection , which serves as the lifeblood of many major technical school firms;expand right - to - repairfor electronics Americans purchase ; restrain price - gouging by internet service providers , and a renovation of Federal Communications Commission policies protecting last neutrality — a term , incidentally , that Wu mint .
“ Let me be very vindicated : capitalist economy without competition is n’t capitalist economy . It ’s victimisation , ” Biden said earlier this month while announcing the executive order . “ Without levelheaded contender , large players can transfer and agitate whatever they want and treat you however they require . And for too many Americans that means accepting a bad tidy sum for affair you ca n’t go without . So , we know we ’ve got a trouble , a major job . But we also have an unbelievable opportunity . ”

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