If you caught our last episode, you're up to speed on the FTC's inquiry on tech censorship.

Mike Maznick, Santana Bolton, and I laid out the problems of which there are many. FTC action here would make

no sense as a matter of market realities. It would flunk First Amendment scrutiny. It would stretch

the FTC's consumer protection and competition mandates. It would really just be a very, very bad idea.

What we didn't do is talk much about what's happening inside the agency,

or about what the FTC is in fact likely to do next.

Those are crucial questions.

Today, we're going to dig into how the FTC works. This is the tech policy

podcast. I'm Corbyn Barthold. My guest is Manisha Mithel. Manisha is a partner at Wilson Sonsini.

She worked at the FTC for more than two decades, much of that time, as head of the

Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. Manisha, it is so good to have you on.

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

You have a unique set of skills here, knowing the nuts and bolts of the FTC. I'm very excited to dig in.

I tend to assume that we have a pretty wonky audience, but on this one, I think we have found something where

even much of our audience may be not very read in. So to start, can we just get a primer on the FTC's enforcement authority?

What are the tools in the FTC's toolkit?

Okay, so sure.

Why don't I start with what the FTC's legal authority is?

And so the main statute that the FTC enforces is Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair

and deceptive acts or practices, as well as unfair methods of competition.

And I would say the vast majority of FTC lawsuits, FTC actions, are brought using some sort

of Section 5-based theory.

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