Platforms demand recusal of FTC, DOJ antitrust officials; and Facebook’s power of redaction

MLex Market Insight

Amazon, Facebook and Google are on a mission: to ensure that the United States Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice antitrust division head Jonathan Kanter recuse themselves from key decisions affecting the digital platforms. Why? Because, they argue, the two officials’ past work and public utterances mean they’re incapable of overseeing their agencies’ investigations impartially. But a court ruling is suggesting the tech giants may be facing an uphill battle. Also on today’s podcast: Facebook’s 2019 settlement with the FTC included a commitment to make changes to its privacy compliance structure and carry out internal privacy assessments. But what’s in those assessments? We may never know, with a US Supreme Court ruling on the US’s Freedom of Information Act allowing Facebook — or Meta Platforms, as it’s now known — to demand heavy-handed redactions of FTC documents.