Facebook has asked the FTC's new chair Lina Khan to recuse herself from the regulator's antitrust case against Facebook. The company claims she can’t be impartial because of her long history of criticizing it and other big-tech firms, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"When a new commissioner has already drawn factual and legal conclusions and deemed the target a lawbreaker, due process requires that individual to recuse herself," Facebook said in the petition to the FTC.
An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment. Khan has said previously that she would consult with FTC ethics officials if recusal questions arose. Facebook’s request comes two weeks after a similar petition was filed by Amazon.com against the new chairwoman,
The FTC is currently deliberating whether to continue its case against Facebook under a different form, after a court dismissed its initial claims. The judge’s 28 June ruling gave the FTC 30 days to file an amended lawsuit, and Khan will need to decide before then whether she participates in the decision.
If Khan withdraws, the FTC is left with four commissioners - two Democrat and two Republican appointees. The two Republican commissioners already voted against the first lawsuit the FTC filed against Facebook in December. If they maintain their position, the FTC case is not expected to continue.
