As the White House figures its strategy for regulating the tech industry, they hired an attorney whose name may send a few quivers down the spines of the Facebooks and Apples of the world. 

Tim Wu, Columbia law professor and author of books like The Curse of Bigness, is set to become Joe Biden’s adviser on competition policy.   

• Tim Wu has said his life mission is to fight bullies: And he’s made it clear who he thinks the bullies are. He has compared the era ushered in by the Big Tech companies, especially Facebook, Amazon and Google, to the early 20th century robber baron age. 

• You may know Tim Wu from his famous sayings: He came up with net neutrality. He’s also the guy who said, “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.”  

• Before Biden, Wu was in tune with Elizabeth Warren: He helped shape her campaign's antitrust policies, which were among the most thorough and strict of any candidate. 

Wu takes over as the antitrust world spins

After years without any relevant cases, Google and Facebook both got hit with federal anticompetitive lawsuits last year. Wu described the Google case as the end of “the antitrust winter.”

The Verdict

Biden has expressed interest in breaking up Facebook and Instagram. With Wu onboard, it’s more likely he will pursue it.