Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen speaks at the 2017 CPAC conference. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP
Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen pushed back Tuesday on the idea that regulators should change the standards they use to address the growing power and influence of large tech companies:
"Given the clear consumer benefits of technology-driven innovation, I am concerned about the push to adopt an approach that will disregard consumer benefits in the pursuit of other perhaps even conflicting goals."
The gritty details: Ohlhausen is resisting calls to change the standards around antitrust enforcement, which a growing cadre of scholars and activists say is necessary to take on mammoth tech firms like Google and Facebook. Ohlhausen says they have all the tools they need.
Why you'll hear about this again: The five biggest tech companies — Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon — are only getting more powerful, and skepticism of their size is getting louder.