March 19, 2010 10:53AM 

# The FTC on Steroids: Will the ‘National Nanny’ Take Over the Internet and the New Information Economy? 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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Writing on the TechLiberationFront blog, [Berin Szoka warns](http://techliberation.com/2010/03/17/how-financial-overhaul-could-put-the-ftc-on-steroids-transform-internet-regulation-overnight/) of the extensive Internet regulation that could come with huge grants of authority to the Federal Trade Commission in [H.R. 4173](http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_4173.html), the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009.”

> Congress is about to reinvent the FTC as the “National Nanny” it was well on its way to becoming back in the 1970s. Today, the FTC is not merely the general overseer of our economy, but the key regulator of the Internet. If the Senate passes Rep. Frank’s bill with its so-called “improvements” to the FTC Act, future generations will look back and wonder why, without even taking the time to consider what it was doing, Congress radically transformed Internet governance as an afterthought to financial regulatory overhaul.

##### Related Tags 

[Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) 

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