As New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced his all-women transition team, Lina Khan was the name that created a ripple, as she is well known as a big tech antagonist. Khan will serve as the co-chair of Mamdani’s transition team. The Pakistani-origin UK-born Democrat served as the chair of the Federal Trade Commission from 2021 to 2025.
Why Lina Khan is a terror to Big Tech
As the FTC, Khan raised several cases against Meta and Amazon. She was unsuccessful in her fight to stop Microsoft’s acquisition of video game giant Activision-Blizzard; she blocked an attempted merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons and enacted a ban on non-compete agreements when workers switch jobs, which was later reversed in court.When Khan was studying law at Yale Law School, she published a paper called ‘Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox’ where she wrote that Amazon used predatory pricing and evaded government scrutiny since the consumers stayed unharmed.Khan was born in the UK to Pakistani parents and moved to the US when she was 11. “I think what we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outsize corporate power and money too often end up dictating our politics, and a clear mandate for change,” Khan said at the event where Mamdani unveiled his all-women transition team, where she was the surprise.
Will Lina Khan have a permanent role in New York now?
According to reports, Khan is now focused on her responsibilities with the transition team, where she will advise on economic policy and personnel and nothing is known about her future in Mamdani’s administration. Though Khan’s city-level role may not involve dealing with Big Tech, Google, Meta and Amazon all have a sizable presence in New York. Some of those large firms could interpret Mamdani’s working with Khan as a “shot across the bow,” Eric Soufer, head of the advanced tech practice at Tusk Strategies, said to the New York Post.
