• Trump announced Rep. Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general.

• Gaetz has criticized Big Tech for censure by conservatives and supports antitrust enforcement.

• Both the Department of Justice and the FTC enforce antitrust laws that affect large technology companies.

President-elect Donald Trump appointed representative Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general, an appointment that, if approved by the Senate, would give the Florida Republican expanded legal power and the ability to act on his longstanding grievances against Big Tech.

Gaetz has frequently criticized Big Techaccusing Silicon Valley firms of censoring conservatives, and in recent years he has emerged as a fierce advocate of antitrust enforcement, particularly against companies like Amazon, Meta and Alphabet.

“The internet room monitors in Silicon Valley, they think they can suppress us, discourage us. Maybe if you’re just a little less patriotic. Maybe if you conform a little more to their way of thinking, then you’ll be allowed to participate in the digital world,” Gaetz said during an appearance in 2021, shortly after Trump has been banned from social media media platforms following the January 6 insurrection.

“Well, you know what? Silicon Valley can’t undo this movement, or this rally, or this congressman,” he told the audience. “We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it.”

However, it is unclear how much of an impact his appointment as attorney general would have on Silicon Valley if approved by the Senate.

A representative for the congressman did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Both the Department of Justice and the FTC are responsible for enforcing antitrust laws in the US. Current Federal Trade Commission Chairman Lina Khanwho Trump may end up replacing, has been aggressive in going after Big Tech companies. Khan has worked to stifle billions of dollars worth of deals over antitrust concerns, and the FTC has filed lawsuits against Nvidia, Meta, and Microsoft, among others.

That work puts her somewhat in line with Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance, who have praised her work. Gaetz said The Wall Street Journal in March, hopes that “whoever is the next chairman of the FTC will continue many of the cases that Chairman Khan brought against predatory businesses.”

So though Khan could gothe federal government’s antitrust policy toward big tech companies may not change dramatically, according to Mark A. Kasten, an attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney who focuses on white-collar criminal defense, compliance and investigations.

It could also depend on who Trump chooses to chair the FTC. While he is expected to fire Khan, it is unclear who he will tap to lead the agency.

“Ultimately, we still expect to see a significant increase in M&A activity,” said Isaac Boltansky, BTIG’s director of policy research. at Barron’s after Gaetz was nominated, referring to mergers and acquisitions.

“But the hurdles for Big Tech may remain high,” he added.

Kasten, who has defended clients under investigation by the Justice Department, also noted that Gaetz voted against The TikTok ban passed in April. The bill, aimed at strengthening national security against China, requires the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell its US assets by January or be banned from app stores.

“Although the law was passed and requires the platform to be sold to a non-Chinese company in January, it’s easy to see a world where an Attorney General Gaetz doesn’t enforce it,” Kasten told BI in an email.

Following the vote, Gaetz said he believed banning TikTok was “the right idea” but that he objected to the “overbroad” and “swift” legislation.

“This is no way to run a railroad (or the internet),” Gaetz posted on X.

Some of the the largest technology companiesincluding Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon, are already facing antitrust cases filed in recent years.

George Hay, an antitrust expert and law professor at Cornell University, previously told BI that incoming presidents generally does not change current cases.

“It’s very rare that, at the presidential level, there is any attempt to influence the course of cases that have already been filed. They have a life of their own,” Hay said. “They depend on the judge, on the courts, on the lawyers who make a case. It’s extraordinarily unusual for the administration to become active at all.”

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