July 12, 2021: On Friday, The White House is going to announce a new executive order aimed at cracking down on competitive practices in Big Tech, Ylan Mui reported from CNBC.

President Joe Biden’s administration will make the case that the biggest companies in the tech sector are wielding their power to box out smaller competitors and exploit consumers’ personal information, Mui said on CNBC

According to Mui, the order will call for regulators to enact reforms like growing up their scrutiny of tech mergers and focusing more on moves such as “killer acquisitions,” in which firms acquire smaller brands to take them out of the market.

The White House chief economic advisor Brian Deese told Miu that the tech giants’ tightened grip has led to a decline in innovation.

Those platforms have “created significant problems,” Deese said.

Including the “problems for users in terms of privacy and security” and “problems for small businesses in terms of entering markets,” he added.

The order will be unveiled after some weeks of the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance six antitrust bills to revitalize competition in the tech sector.

The bills would make it harder for dominant firms to complete mergers and outlaw specific standard business models for such firms, which have faced huge bipartisan pushback from those concerned that they don’t go far enough or have unintended side effects.

At the end of June, a judge threw out complaints from the Federal Trade Commission and a group of state attorneys general alleging Facebook has maintained monopoly power illegally.

Biden’s executive order also calls on the FTC to craft new rules on Big Tech’s data collection and user surveillance practices and asks the agency to prohibit specific unfair methods of competition on internet marketplaces, Mui reported.

The order could provide relief to small and medium-sized businesses that complain of the crippling grip of tech firms allegedly like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google over digital markets.

Biden’s executive order will not impose its will on Big Tech companies unilaterally and instead calls on the independent FTC to act.

But new FTC chair Lina Khan has already carved out a reputation as a vocal advocate for reforming and beefing up regulations on tech giants.

Amazon calls for Khan to be recused from ongoing probes of its business and argues that she lacks impartiality and accusing her of saying the company is “guilty of antitrust violations and should be broken up” repeatedly.