Far Left FTC Nominee Bedoya Threatens to ‘Police Big Tech’

At a time when the Biden administration is demanding more tech censorship from Silicon Valley companies, its radical, far-left nominee to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Alvaro Bedoya, has told Senators that he will extensively use the Commission’s vast rulemaking powers to “police Big Tech.”

As Breitbart News previously reported, Bedoya is a far-left partisan who has repeatedly objected to the effective enforcement of U.S. immigration law, who amplified Trump-Russia conspiracy theories, and who retweeted claims that President Trump’s administration was “white supremacist.”

During Bedoya’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) pressed him on how much of the FTC’s power he thought should be used.

“Should the FTC use its Section 5 rulemaking authority when it comes to unfair methods of competition, under Section 5?” asked Sen. Lee.

“I do believe that if the Commission is to be called on to police Big Tech, it needs every tool at its disposal,” responded Bedoya.

Bedoya would not give a clear answer on whether he intends to extensively wield the Commission’s rulemaking authority to interpret legislation passed by Congress.

Rulemaking is a tool that has in the past been used sparingly, but would be tempting for a partisan commission seeking to quickly achieve partisan goals without going through Congress.

The use of rulemaking has become a crucial partisan battle tactic. In his final year in office, President Trump petitioned the FCC to use  Section 230 rulemaking to prohibit tech censorship, an effort that was ultimately shot down by then-chairman Ajit Pai despite a Republican majority on the commission.

The stakes are high — if the FTC becomes occupied by partisan left-wingers, it could use rulemaking to achieve the opposite — changing the interpretation of laws to encourage more censorship and political bias from major corporations, not less.

The FTC has already hired a pro-censorship radical, notorious Silicon Valley leftist Meredith Whittaker, who has referred to at least one conservative online news website, the Daily Caller, as a “hate site.” With a partisan majority, the FTC could use rulemaking — or the threat of rulemaking — to get what they want from Big Tech.

“Should the FTC be focused on enforcement and adjudication rather than expansive rulemaking?” asked Sen. Lee.

“I believe that it is charged by Congress to do both,” said Bedoya. “I think the meat and potatoes of the work is enforcement, but where Congress has given the Commission express authority, I think it’s important that they use it as necessary.”

“Primarily enforcement, rulemaking when necessary,” repeated Bedoya, when pressed by Lee.

Concluding his line of inquiry, Sen. Lee expressed frustration that Bedoya avoided giving clear yes-or-no answers to his questions.

“I really do believe each one of these questions could and should be subject to a reasonable yes-or-no answer. I haven’t gotten that today, I should have gotten that, and that’s deeply concerning to me,” said Lee.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.