Reid Hoffman—Publicly called for VP Harris to replace FTC Chair Lina Khan, a major antitrust enforcer
In July 2024, Reid Hoffman publicly called for Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Lina Khan as FTC Chair if elected. Khan had aggressively pursued antitrust enforcement against Big Tech, including unsuccessfully trying to block Microsoft's $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. Hoffman's call was widely criticized as a major Democratic donor seeking to weaken tech regulation, given his financial interests in companies affected by FTC enforcement including Microsoft (board member until 2023) and various tech investments through Greylock Partners.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antitrust & Competition | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Regulatory Capture | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.483 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.64)
Evidence (2 signals)
CNBC reported Hoffman's conflicts of interest in calling for Khan's removal
Multiple outlets reported on the conflicts of interest in Hoffman's call to remove Lina Khan. As a former Microsoft board member and co-founder of Inflection AI, Hoffman had direct financial interests in weakening FTC tech regulation. He was among the top 30 Democratic donors that cycle, raising questions about wealthy donors seeking to influence regulatory appointments.
Hoffman publicly urged Harris to replace FTC Chair Lina Khan
Reid Hoffman publicly called for VP Kamala Harris to replace FTC Chair Lina Khan if elected president. Khan had aggressively pursued antitrust enforcement against Big Tech companies, including trying to block Microsoft's $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. The call drew widespread criticism as a major tech donor seeking to weaken regulation affecting his financial interests.