Broadband Breakfast Preview Session for Big Tech & Speech Summit on March 9

Wednesday, March 1, 2023, 12 Noon ET – Preview Session for Big Tech & Speech Summit

With one week left to go before Broadband Breakfast’s live in-person Big Tech & Speech Summit, the conference moderators will present a preview of what to expect at the event. We’ll go over the newest developments in the world of Big Tech — including the recent opening arguments in Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh — and set the stage for timely discussions on content moderation, privacy and competition. Attendees will have the chance to shape the discussion at the summit by letting moderators know in advance what burning questions are on their minds.

Panelists

• Cathy Gellis, Attorney
• John Verdi, Senior Vice President of Policy, Future of Privacy Forum
• Sara Morrison, Senior Reporter, Recode by Vox
• Drew Clark, Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast (moderator)

Frustrated that people were making the law without asking for her opinion, Cathy Gellis gave up a career in web development to become a lawyer to help them not make it badly, especially regarding technology. A former aspiring journalist and longtime fan of civil liberties, her legal work includes defending the rights of Internet users and advocating for policy that protects speech and innovation. When not advising clients on platform liability, copyright, trademark, privacy or cybersecurity, she frequently writes about these subjects and more for a variety of outlets.

John Verdi is senior vice president of policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, a global think tank based in Washington D.C. John supervises FPF’s policy portfolio, which includes data protection issues ranging from ad tech and AI to legislative analysis and youth privacy. John was previously director of privacy initiatives at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Sara Morrison is a senior reporter at Vox’s Recode, where she covers data privacy, antitrust, and Big Tech’s power over us all. Also, TikTok. She previously wrote about technology’s impact on the world for Vocativ, and her work has also appeared in the Atlantic, Jezebel, Nieman Reports, and Columbia Journalism Review, among others.

Drew Clark (moderator) is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC. He has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

Preview the March 9 Big Tech & Speech Summit Program

PANEL 1: THE BIG PICTURE FOR BIG TECHIt’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?

• 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

SPECIAL ADDRESSES

• Adam Conner, Vice President for Technology Policy, American Progress
• Eli Noam, Director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
• John Samples, Vice President, Cato Institute
• Others have been invited

PANEL 2: THE FRAGILITY OF SECTION 230 Panel 2 will address content moderation, political polarization and Biden’s call to “fundamentally reform Section 230.” With the Supreme Court digging deeply into the law, the internet’s foundation might be at risk. Some 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)
• Matthew Bergman, Founding Attorney, Social Media Victims Law Center
• 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.

PANEL 3: REGULATING DATA PRIVACY Panel 3 will address how best to regulate the collection of personal data and its use in targeted advertising. Federal privacy legislation died in Congress, leaving states to set their own digital privacy rules to govern digital privacy. 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)
• Alan Butler, Executive Director and President, Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Sara Collins, Senior Policy Counsel, Public Knowledge
• India McKinney, Director of Federal Affairs, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Shane Tews, Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
• Alisa Valentin, Senior Director of Technology & Telecommunications Policy, National Urban League

PANEL 4: INNOVATION, COMPETITION AND FUTURE TECH Panel 4 will address what we know and what we don’t know about innovation and competition. How will the power of AI be harnessed? Is government regulation needed? Some lawmakers, on both the right and the left, agree with President Biden 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
• Cheyenne Hunt-Majer, Big Tech Accountability Advocate, Public Citizen
• Adam Kovacevich, CEO, Chamber of Progress
• Berin Szóka, President, TechFreedom Foundation

Learn more about the Big Tech & Speech Summit, or REGISTER HERE.

WATCH HERE, or on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.