Antitrust Activist Economist Tim Wu Joins Biden Staff As Adviser

An influential critic of some of the biggest Silicon Valley technology companies has landed a seat on President Joe Biden’s economic council.

Tim Wu was named Friday (March 5) as Biden’s Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy, the White House announced in a press release.

Wu most recently was a professor at Columbia University law school and previously served as senior enforcement counsel to the New York Attorney General, senior adviser at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and as an adviser at the National Economic Council, according to the release.

Among Wu’s books are “The Curse of Bigness,” “The Attention Merchants” and “The Master Switch.” He has argued that the United States and other major economic powers have, over recent decades, adopted weak antitrust policies that allow too much aggregation of power by a small group of corporations to the extent that a second “gilded age” is likely.

Wu’s biography at publisher Penguin Random House credits him with coining the term “net neutrality.”

Reuters quoted White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki as having told reporters Friday: “The president has been clear … that he stands up to the abuse of power and that includes the abuse of power from big technology companies and their executives. Tim will help advance the president’s agenda, which includes addressing the economic and social challenges posed by the growing power of tech platforms, promoting competition and addressing monopoly and market power issues.”

Wu, a Harvard Law School graduate, lives in New York City with his wife and daughters, according to the White House release.