Big Tech & Speech Summit

The full-day program is available for $299, with breakfast and lunch included in the price. Registrants also receive unlimited access to the event videos and two months' complimentary membership in the Breakfast Club.

The Big Picture for Big Tech

It’s safe to say that Big Tech is no longer Washington’s favored child. Silicon Valley and the Big Tech giants that it has spawned — including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Apple and others — are under a microscope as never before. What accounts for this shift? Has reverence for the mantra “move fast and break things” become revulsion at what Big Tech has done to our brains?

• Drew Clark, Editor & Publisher, Broadband Breakfast (moderator)
• Ellery Roberts Biddle, Senior Editor, Coda Media
• Steve DelBianco, President & CEO, NetChoice
• Willmary Escoto, U.S. Policy Analyst, Access Now
• Amy Peikoff, Head of Policy and Legal, Parler
• Dane Snowden, Senior Advisor, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP
• Others have been invited

The Fragility of Section 230

The panel will address content moderation, political polarization and Biden’s call to “fundamentally reform Section 230.” Section 230 has been referred to as “the 26 words that created the internet.” The law allows online platforms to engage in content moderation without accepting liability for third-party content. With the Supreme Court digging deeply into the law, the internet’s foundation might be at risk. Plus, Congress is considering proposals to require greater transparency of platforms’ algorithms. Others want to force social networks to be hands-off. Still others want them to more actively police misinformation. Who will force changes upon Section 230 practices: The President, Congress, the High Court or the marketplace?

• Cathy Gellis, Attorney (moderator)
• Ashley Johnson, Senior Policy Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
• Emma Llansó, Director, Free Expression Project, Center for Democracy & Technology
• Chris Marchese, Counsel, NetChoice
• Ron Yokubaitis, Founder, Texas.net, Inc.
• Others have been invited

Regulating Data Privacy

This panel will address how best to regulate the collection of personal data and its use in targeted advertising.

Federal privacy legislation was introduced to bipartisan acclaim in 2022. But the bill died in Congress, leaving states to set their own digital privacy rules to govern digital privacy. The time children and adults spend online is heightening attention on potentially harmful effects of digital immersion. What kind of guardrails are states putting in place? How can Congress or federal regulators respond to rapidly-developing changes in the tech industry?

• John Verdi, Senior Vice President of Policy, Future of Privacy Forum (moderator)
• India McKinney, Director of Federal Affairs, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Shane Tews, Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
• Others have been invited

Innovation, Competition and Future Tech

The panel will address the realities — including what we know and what we don’t know — about innovation and competition.

For example, artificial intelligence has taken huge strides in the past few years. How will the power of AI be harnessed? Is government regulation needed? And what about the promised “metaverse:” A fad or a game changer? Some lawmakers, on both the right and the left, agree with the President that Big Tech stifles innovation. Who’s correct? And how will innovation and competition move forward in the future?

• Sara Morrison, Senior Reporter, Recode by Vox (moderator)
• Christine Bannan, U.S. Public Policy Manager, Proton
• Adam Kovacevich, CEO, Chamber of Progress
• Berin Szóka, President, TechFreedom Foundation
• Others have been invited