President-elect Donald Trump has picked Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the consumer protection and antitrust agency as chair.
“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote of the current FTC commissioner on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Ferguson (R), one of two FTC commissioners appointed by President Joe Biden, will be “the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History,” Trump said. The commission currently has three Democrats and two Republicans serving as commissioners.
Ferguson is expected to be more pro-business than current FTC chair Lina Khan, and has stated that the agency should investigate apparent censorship of conservative viewpoints online, according to Reuters.
“We must vigorously enforce the antitrust laws against any platforms found to be unlawfully limiting Americans’ ability to exchange ideas freely and openly,” Ferguson said in a recent statement.
“These changes likely will make the FTC more favorable to business than it has been in recent years,” Anthony DiResta, a consumer protection attorney at Holland & Knight, wrote last month. “Historically, the FTC has acted in an apolitical manner and has not been philosophically extreme one way or another … As the Khan tenure demonstrated, those days are gone, and the election results with Trump as president and the Congress in full control by Republicans will have a significant impact on the FTC.”
Ferguson’s current role as the newest FTC commissioner began in April.
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