Sources doj eyitayo st. matthewdaniel facebook
According to three persons with knowledge of the matter, Eyitayo St. Matthew-Daniel, a lesser-known criminal antitrust prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, would likely be designated the head enforcer of antitrust laws at the Federal Trade Commission, the department’s sister organisation. Current Acting FTC Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who has pushed for more robust antitrust action against major digital corporations and an expansion of the sorts of cases the agency investigates, made the previously unknown choice.
St. Matthew-Daniel would be in charge of a division of the agency challenging Facebook in court, looking into Amazon’s business practises, and examining mergers like Nvidia’s acquisition of chipmaker Arm. Following President Joe Biden’s nomination of antitrust activist Lina Khan to be an FTC commissioner, subject to Senate approval, her appointment would come after that. Both actions demonstrate how the new administration is giving opponents of big tech more leverage within an organisation that has previously come under fire for not aggressively pursuing charges against firms like Facebook.