Tim Wu’s appointment to the National Economic Council
By Cecilia Kang
Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor, was named a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy on Friday.Credit…Valerie Chiang for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday named Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor, to the National Economic Council as a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, putting one of the most outspoken critics of Big Tech’s power into the administration.
The appointment of Mr. Wu, 48, who is widely supported by progressive Democrats and antimonopoly groups, suggests that the administration plans to take on the size and influence of companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, including working with Congress on legislation to strengthen antitrust laws. During his campaign, Mr. Biden said he would be open to breaking up tech companies.
That confrontational approach toward the tech industry would be a continuation of the one taken by the Trump administration. Late last year, federal and state regulators sued Facebook and Google, accusing them of antitrust violations. The regulators continue to investigate claims that Amazon and Apple unfairly squash competition.
Mr. Biden has also expressed skepticism toward social media companies and the legal shield known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. He told the New York Times editorial board in January 2020 that Section 230 “should be revoked, immediately.”
The tech companies have fought vigorously against new antitrust laws and regulations, building out some of the most potent lobbying forces in Washington to push back.
Mr. Wu has warned about the consequences of too much power in the hands of a few companies and said the nation’s economy resembled the Gilded Age of the late 1800s.
“Extreme economic concentration yields gross inequality and material suffering, feeding the appetite for nationalistic and extremist leadership,” Mr. Wu wrote in his 2018 book, “The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.”
“Most visible in our daily lives is the great power of the tech platforms, especially Google, Facebook and Amazon,” he added.
Mr. Wu was a contributing writer for The Times before dropping that position for his appointment to the White House.
His role, with a focus on competition policy, will be a new one in the National Economic Council. Mr. Wu will also focus on competition in labor policy, such as noncompete clauses enforced by companies, and concentration in power in agriculture and the drug industry. The job does not require Senate approval.
Mr. Biden has not yet named nominees to officially lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission — the main agencies overseeing competition in commerce. Progressives have vociferously fought for the appointments of left-leaning advocates like Mr. Wu over individuals with histories of working for tech companies and law firms that represent them.
“Tim has been a longtime antitrust advocate, and he has pushed public officials to break up and rein in Big Tech,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “I’m glad to see him in this role.”
Mr. Wu has left academia at various times to work in government. He was a special adviser to the Federal Trade Commission in 2011 and 2012 and then joined the National Economic Council to work on competition policy during the Obama administration, which was known for its kid-glove treatment of tech companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. Mr. Wu has since expressed some regret.
“I worked in the Obama administration, and I worked in antitrust, so I will take some personal blame here, but we have not provided the merger oversight we should have,” Mr. Wu said in an interview at the Aspen Ideas festival in 2019. He added that “maybe sometimes we had an overly rosy view” of the tech sector.
Relatively unbridled by regulations, those companies greatly expanded through mergers and acquisitions during President Barack Obama’s two terms. Mr. Wu has talked about the pivot of many Democrats since those days, with the realization that the tech giants have failed to live up to promises to protect user data, treat small competitors fairly and root out misinformation from their platforms.
Mr. Wu is best known for advocacy against powerful telecom companies and for coining the term “net neutrality,” the regulatory philosophy that consumers should get equal access to all content on the internet. More recently, he has turned his attention to the gatekeepers — like Facebook, Google and Amazon — that dominate speech, search and retail online.
During federal and state antitrust investigations of Facebook, he joined with Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, to argue for the company’s breakup.
The appointment sets the tone for a new era in antitrust enforcement, said Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. Ms. Klobuchar has introduced a broad bill to strengthen antitrust laws.
- “The laws haven’t changed, so enforcement and new ideas are key,” she said. “This is the shot in the arm that competition policy needs.”
Source from New York Times 03/05/2021 by Cecilia Kang
白宮宣布台裔吳修銘任總統特助 助拜登對抗科技巨頭
白宮5日宣布，台裔學者吳修銘（Tim Wu）將擔任科技及競爭總統特別助理。（美聯社）
〔即時新聞／綜合報導〕美國白宮5日宣布，台裔學者吳修銘（Tim Wu）將擔任科技及競爭總統特別助理，白宮發言人莎琪（Jen Psaki）表示，吳修銘將協助拜登推動支持工薪家庭的議題。
白宮5日宣布最新任用名單，其中包括台裔哥倫比亞大學教授吳修銘，他將加入國家經濟委員會，擔任科技及競爭總統特別助理。白宮指出，新任人選反映了美國的多樣性，將在拜登政府重建國家的路程中，發揮關鍵作用。
白宮發言人莎琪（Jen Psaki）對於吳修銘任命案表示，吳在科技和競爭政策方面擁有豐富的知識與經驗，這些知識與經驗將協助拜登推動支持工薪家庭、增強中產階級與保護消費者的經濟議程。
此外，莎琪也說，拜登已經明確表示，要處理大型科技公司濫用權力的問題，吳修銘也將在此方面提供協助，應對科技平台引發的經濟與社會挑戰，解決市場壟斷的問題。
Source from 自由時報 2021/03/06
台裔吳修銘入白宮 承繼黑名單父親吳明達反威權感召
（中央社紐約5日綜合外電報導）美國哥倫比亞大學台裔教授吳修銘將加入白宮國家經濟委員會擔任總統拜登特助。父親吳明達是早期台獨運動啟蒙人物的吳修銘曾說自己承繼了反威權的傳統，注定與政治有不解之緣。
白宮宣布，吳修銘將加入白宮國家經濟委員會，擔任總統科技與競爭政策特別助理。吳修銘專長包括反托拉斯法，預料將對抗網路科技巨頭。
「紐約時報」報導，現年49歲的哥倫比亞大學法學院教授吳修銘2014年時曾參與紐約州副州長的民主黨內初選，作為網際網路的法律與政策專家，「網路中立」（Net Neutrality，通常指網路服務供應商應採中立態度，不應透過控制連線來影響使用者並獲取利益）一詞就是他所發明。
當時他在角逐黨內初選前往華人票倉拜票時常秀出流利中文，大啖臭豆腐、海蜇皮、蒜蓉炒豬肉等台灣美食，在拜會法拉盛（Flushing）的台灣會館時，還會特別提已故的父親吳明達是台南人，頗對台裔口味。
吳修銘不少在台灣的親戚在地方從政，大多代表民進黨參選，當時也給了他不少競選建議。
吳修銘常會在夏天時回台灣，返台時就住親戚家，土芒果是他最愛的水果之一。
根據紐約時報的報導，吳修銘成年後學會讀中文，才知道他的父親曾是早年提倡台獨運動的人物之一，並曾要求台灣其他異議人士驅逐蔣介石和他所領導的國民黨政府。報導說，台獨運動人士當年被列入黑名單。
吳修銘的父親出生時台灣尚未光復，祖父是當時日本殖民政府的官僚。國民黨政府退守來台，吳明達就讀台大前曾服過兵役。吳明達後來在多倫多大學拿到博士，成為免疫學家，後來與知名科學家加洛（Robert Gallo）從事幹細胞與T細胞研究。
吳明達倡導台獨運動，吳修銘說父親曾在加州大學做博士後研究時極為活躍，後來到華府做科學研究時還發行地下刊物「望春風」。吳明達42歲那年死於腦瘤，吳修銘與弟弟由英裔加拿大籍的母親扶養長大，母親本身也是名科學家，常往返瑞士與多倫多。
吳修銘做過聯邦最高法院大法官布雷爾（Stephen G. Breyer）的書記官，也曾在美國2008年總統大選時時擔任歐巴馬的科技政策顧問，後來也當過聯邦貿易委員會（FTC）高階顧問。
在就讀法學院時，吳修銘就返台見證1996年台灣第一次總統直選，當時他還說「我基本上注定是要參與政治，當時機來臨，我會覺得此其時矣，因為這麼做是對的。」（譯者：陳亦偉/核稿：陳昱婷）1100306
Source from 中央社
Posted in 03/2021
