Tim Wu | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 吳修銘 | |||||||||||
 Wu in 2014 | |||||||||||
| Born | Timothy Shiou-Ming Wu 1971 or 1972 (age 53–54)[1] Washington, D.C., U.S. | ||||||||||
| Education | McGill University (BSc) Harvard University (JD) | ||||||||||
| Known for | coining "net neutrality"; late 2010s revival ofantitrust | ||||||||||
| Political party | Democratic | ||||||||||
| Spouse | Kate Judge | ||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||
| Relatives | Alan Ming-ta Wu (father) Gillian Edwards (mother) | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 吳修銘 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 吴修铭 | ||||||||||
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TimothyShiou-Ming Wu (Chinese:吳修銘; born 1971 or 1972) is aTaiwanese-American legal scholar who served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States from 2021 to 2023.[2][3][4] He is also a professor of law atColumbia University and a contributing opinion writer forThe New York Times. He is known legally and academically for significant contributions toantitrust and communications policy,[5][6] coining the phrase "network neutrality" in his 2003 law journal article,Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination.[7][8] In the late 2010s, Wu was a leading advocate for an antitrust lawsuit directed at the breakup ofFacebook.[9]
Wu is a scholar of the media and technology industries, and his academic specialties include antitrust,copyright, and telecommunications law. He was named toThe National Law Journal's "America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers" in 2013, as well as to the "Politico 50" in 2014 and 2015. Additionally, Wu was named one ofScientific American's 50 people of the year in 2006, and one ofHarvard University's 100 most influential graduates by02138 magazine in 2007.[10] His bookThe Master Switch was named among the best books of 2010 byThe New Yorker,[11]Fortune,[12] andPublishers Weekly.[13]
From 2011 to 2012, Wu served as a senior advisor to theFederal Trade Commission,[14] and from 2015 to 2016 he was senior enforcement counsel at theNew York Office of the Attorney General, where he launched a successful lawsuit againstTime Warner Cable for falsely advertising their broadband speeds.[15] Wu also served on theNational Economic Council in theObama administration underJeffrey Zients, and served under DirectorBrian Deese during theBiden administration.[4] In the Biden administration, Wu notably helped author the 2021Executive Order on Competition.[16]
Wu was born inWashington, D.C.,[17] and grew up inBasel andToronto.[18] His father,Alan Ming-ta Wu, was fromTaiwan[19] and his mother,Gillian Wu (née Edwards),[20] is a British-Canadian immunologist.[21] Wu and his younger brother were sent to alternative schools that emphasized creativity, and he became friends withCory Doctorow.[20]
Wu attendedMcGill University, where he initially studiedbiochemistry before switching his major tobiophysics, graduating with aB.Sc. in 1995.[6][20] He then attendedHarvard Law School, graduating withJ.D.,magna cum laude, in 1998. At Harvard, he studied under copyright scholarLawrence Lessig.[6]
After law school, Wu first spent a year at theU.S. Department of Justice'sOffice of Legal Counsel. He then spent two years as alaw clerk, first for JudgeRichard Posner on theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1998 to 1999, then for JusticeStephen Breyer at theU.S. Supreme Court from 1999 to 2000.[22] Following his clerkships, Wu moved to theSan Francisco Bay Area, worked atRiverstone Networks, Inc. (2000–02),[23] and then entered academia at theUniversity of Virginia School of Law.[22]
Wu was an associate professor of law at theUniversity of Virginia from 2002 to 2004, a visiting professor atColumbia Law School in 2004, and, in 2005, a visiting professor at both theUniversity of Chicago Law School and atStanford Law School.[22] In 2006, he became a full professor atColumbia Law School.[24]
Wu's 2010 book,The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, described a long "cycle" whereby open information systems become consolidated and closed over time, reopening only after disruptive innovation. The book shows how this cycle developed with the rise of the BellAT&T telephone monopoly, the founding of the Hollywood entertainment industry, broadcast and cable television industries, and finally with the internet industry. He looks at the example ofApple Inc., which began as a company dedicated to openness, that evolved into a more closed system under the leadership ofSteve Jobs, demonstrating that the internet industry will follow the historical cycle of the rise of information empires (although Wu discussed Google as an important counterpoint). The book was named one of the best books of 2010 by several publications, including among others,The New Yorker,[11]Fortune,[12] Amazon.com,[25]The Washington Post,[26] andPublishers Weekly.[13]
Wu ran for the Democratic nomination forLieutenant Governor of New York in 2014, campaigning alongside gubernatorial candidateZephyr Teachout.[27] Wu and Teachout ran againstAndrew Cuomo, the incumbent governor, andKathy Hochul, an upstate Democrat and former Representative in the House. Teachout and Wu ran to the left of Cuomo and Hochul. Hochul won the race for Lieutenant Governor; Wu took 40% of the popular vote.[28] Wu's campaign received an endorsement fromThe New York Times editorial board, although they offered no endorsement for the office of governor.[29][30]
In aWashington Post interview discussing his candidacy, Wu described his approach to the campaign as one positioned against the concentration of private power: "A hundred years ago, antitrust and merger enforcement was front page news. And we live in another era of enormous private concentration. And for some reason we call all these 'wonky issues.' They're not, really. They affect people more than half a dozen other issues. Day to day, people's lives are affected by concentration and infrastructure... You can expect a progressive-style, trust-busting kind of campaign out of me. And I fully intend to bridge that gap between the kind of typical issues in electoral politics and questions involving private power."[31]
In September 2015,The New York Times reported that Wu was appointed to a position in the Office of New York State Attorney GeneralEric Schneiderman.[32] During the2018 New York Attorney General election, Wu was mentioned as a possible candidate, though he ended up not mounting a bid.[33]
FollowingJoe Biden'selection asPresident of the United States, Wu had been mentioned as a possible appointee to theFederal Trade Commission, a body for which he has previously served as a senior advisor.[34] On March 5, 2021, Wu confirmed a previous report[35] that he would be joining theBiden administration'sNational Economic Council as a Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy.[4] As a member of the Biden administration, Wu was responsible for helping to author the antitrust-focusedExecutive Order 14036.[16]
On August 2, 2022,Bloomberg News reported that Wu would leave the White House to return to his professorship at Columbia in the following months;[36] however, Wu responded to the report by promising to not leave his position "anytime soon".[37] On December 31, 2022,The New York Times reported that Mr. Wu's last day at the National Economic Council would be Wednesday, January 4, 2023, ending his 22-month tenure as special assistant to the Biden administration. Mr. Wu said he would return to his previous job, as a professor at Columbia Law School.[38]
Wu is credited with popularizing the concept ofnetwork neutrality in his 2003 paperNetwork Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination. The paper considered network neutrality in terms of neutrality between applications, as well as neutrality between data and quality of service-sensitive traffic, and he proposed some legislation, potentially, to deal with these issues.[7][8]
In 2011, Wu joined the Federal Trade Commission as an academic in residence and Senior Policy Advisor,[39] a position later held by Paul Ohm in 2012,[40] and then byAndrea M. Matwyshyn in 2014.[41] Wu has appeared on the television programsThe Colbert Report andCharlie Rose.[42][43] Wu has written about the phenomenon ofattention theft,[44] including in his 2016 bookThe Attention Merchants. Wu has been described as a leading member of theNew Brandeis movement.[45][46] His 2018 book,The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age, analyzed the history and principles of antitrust enforcement in the United States and argued that increasing corporate consolidation presented threats not only to the U.S. economy but also to the American political system.[47]
Wu is married toKathryn Judge, fellow Columbia law professor and lawyer. They have two daughters.[1] Wu has won twoLowell Thomas Awards for travel journalism,[48] and was on the Director's Advisory Group for the Sundance Film Festival in the late 2010s.[49][50]
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