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One reason the charge that Donald Trump and his allies are fascist does not resonate with the American people is that many of those leveling it have themselves supported policies that can be described as fascist. Take Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan. A two-part report from the House Judiciary Committee on Khan’s tenure as FTC Chair shows how she has abused her power and, on at least one occasion, acted in a manner that can fairly be described as fascist.

The first part of the report, The Federal Trade Commission Under Chair Lina Khan: Undue Biden-Harris White House Influence and Sweeping Destruction of Agency Norms, focuses on how Khan “undermined the FTC’s mission through a restless violation of legal, procedural, and traditional norms.” The report discusses how Khan wasted taxpayer resources by bringing weak cases that she knew, or should have known, had little chance of succeeding. The report also discusses how the FTC’s “cooperation” with European antitrust regulators harms U.S. businesses.

The report also accuses Khan of politicizing the FTC. For example, it discusses her membership in President Biden’s “Strike Force on Illegal and Unfair Pricing.” The strike force is an effort to scapegoat “greedy” businesses for price inflation.

Part two of the report focuses on Khan's weaponization of the FTC against free-speech advocate and Biden-Harris critic Elon Musk. Khan used Twitter’s 2011 consent decree with the FTC as her weapon. The 2011 decree required that Twitter submit to independent audits of its privacy and data security protocols. In 2019, Twitter reported a consent decree violation regarding the accidental use of data for advertising without user consent. As a result, the FTC began working on revising and strengthening the agreement.

In 2021, a newly installed FTC Chair Khan asked the agency to reopen negotiations with Twitter on revising the consent decree. Khan initially did not make finalizing the deal a time-sensitive priority. That changed in 2022—when she decided the agency needed to approve the new consent decree ASAP. Khan was so concerned about getting the consent decree approved that she scheduled a vote before most commissioners had a chance to study it.

When asked why Khan was in a hurry to approve the consent decree, her counsel said the quiet part out loud: Khan wanted the revised consent decree approved before Musk took control of Twitter. Thus, Khan wanted to approve the new consent decree—which gives the FTC authority to collect material regarding the company’s data, privacy, and other policies—right before it was purchased by someone whose explicit goal was to challenge the online censorship promoted by the Biden Administration.

Shortly after taking over Twitter, Musk released the Twitter files. These were emails between Twitter employees and employees of various federal bureaucracies. The communications centered around the government’s “request” that Twitter censor certain news and opinions. Following the release of the Twitter Files, the FTC used its authority under the consent agreement to “request” that Twitter “…identify all journalists and other members of the media” that communicated with Twitter since Musk bought the company.

The request identified specific journalists the agency was interested in, including “Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shallenberger, [and] Abigail Shrier.” What these journalists have in common is that they received the Twitter files from Musk. So Khan is using the consent decree to harass journalists who expose government violations of the First Amendment, when in reality she should be helping protect Twitter users’ First Amendment rights.

Using government power to intimidate journalists who expose government wrongdoing is the type of conduct that can fairly be described as fascist. So is the government pressuring companies to silence citizens who express “unapproved” views. It makes no difference if the censorship was done to stop “misinformation” or “hate speech.” The First Amendment does not make an exemption for government officials, even ones as wise as Khan, to label misinformation, hate speech, or Russian propaganda, or to censor it.

Elon Musk’s influence with President Trump will likely lead the President to reject the advice of those who want to use federal power to silence progressives and other critics of the Trump Administration. And, in his first volley of Executive Orders Trump included Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. That is about as anti-fascist as it comes. 

Norm Singleton is a senior fellow at the Market Institute. 


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