Antitrust Advocate Looks To Be Next New York Attorney General

On Monday, progressive tech critic Zephyr Teachout announced that she will run for New York attorney general in 2022. A law professor at Fordham University and a scholar on corruption and antitrust laws, Teachout could push for more strenuous penalties in several major tech antitrust cases, reported The Verge.

Teachout said earlier this year that she would run for attorney general if the incumbent, current attorney general Letitia James, decided to run for governor. In October, James announced that she would be running for the New York gubernatorial Democratic nomination, leaving the attorney general seat open next year.

At a press conference on Monday, Teachout said her priorities as attorney general would include fighting corruption and corporate abuse while defending civil rights. 

“I have been fighting against corruption for my entire career, and I will go after politicians who lie and who think they are above the law,” Teachout said on Monday.

While Teachout’s Monday announcement focused on political corruption, she has become a prominent proponent of using antitrust law to break up tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. In her 2020 book, Teachout discussed several ways in which state and federal governments could pursue breakups, like actions from the Federal Trade Commission and new laws from Congress.

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