Author: Nihal Krishan, Washington Examiner

Democrats have regained a majority at the Federal Trade Commission, enabling Chairwoman Lina Khan to advance an aggressive and liberal anti-monopoly and consumer protection agenda focusing on Big Tech and major oil companies. The confirmation to the commission Wednesday of Biden nominee Alvaro Bedoya, a Georgetown University law professor and prominent privacy advocate, will give…

More than 100 prominent liberal groups are pushing the largest social media companies, such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter, to moderate and censor more content on the grounds of countering “disinformation” ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Conservatives have been particularly fearful that such efforts would result in greater censorship of right-leaning content and…

A federal appeals court in Texas Wednesday reinstated a Republican-backed anti-Big Tech law that stops social media companies from banning users due to their political beliefs. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision allows HB 20 to go back into effect while the case continues in the lower district court in Texas and is…

Elon Musk‘s aim of restoring former President Donald Trump to Twitter could pressure competing platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, to also allow Trump to return. Musk said Tuesday that once he takes full control of Twitter in a few months, he plans to reverse the platform’s permanent ban on Trump for his role in…

The Senate confirmed Alvaro Bedoya on Wednesday as a member of the Federal Trade Commission, allowing Democrats to regain a majority at the agency and pursue their ambitious technology and antitrust agenda. Bedoya, a Georgetown University law professor and prominent privacy advocate, will give Democrats a 3-2 advantage during commission votes related to the regulation…

Conservatives who oppose the controversial Disinformation Governance Board doubt the Biden administration’s claims that it is narrowly focused on foreign threats and not censorship, saying the board would then be housed by a different federal agency. The Biden administration says the Department of Homeland Security’s new disinformation board is focused on noncontroversial foreign threats that…

President Joe Biden’s top antitrust attorney at the Justice Department has reportedly been barred temporarily from working on investigations into alleged monopolistic practices by Google due to his work for the search giant’s rivals Microsoft and Yelp. Jonathan Kanter, a liberal Big Tech critic and a longtime advocate for antitrust action against Google in particular,…

House Republicans are seeking to defund the Biden administration’s controversial Disinformation Governance Board, and conservative members are eager to threaten a shutdown to do so if necessary. House GOP Republicans, including the offices of firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), told the Washington Examiner that Republicans would support using the government’s…

The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana accused President Joe Biden and other top government officials in a lawsuit Thursday of colluding with social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to censor and suppress speech under the guise of combating dangerous misinformation. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff…

Conservatives are hoping for the return of political ads to Twitter under the ownership of billionaire Elon Musk, a move that could shake up political messaging on social media platforms. Twitter banned political ads from its platform in 2019, becoming one of a handful of major social media sites to do so. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s…