Big tech is in the crosshairs again at one of the biggest annual gatherings of conservative politicians and personalities.
In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), elected officials, including Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., targeted large technology and corporate immunity favored by Section 230, which is now being considered by the Supreme Court.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Co., said in a speech on Friday: “I have asked for 230 protections to be removed from these large technology companies that hide behind section 230, and they act like editors instead of publishers.”
But unlike last year’s conference, speakers were unable to advance their grand utopian vision of a conservative “parallel economy” protected from the power of progressive values.
However, business leaders and elected officials share a broader perspective, criticizing the failed promises of technology like cryptocurrency, which many conservatives embraced last year. He also acknowledges the uneven odds of competing with tech giants and the difficulty of turning startups into companies that can eventually scale and grow independently of politically motivated investors.
Devin Nunes, CEO of former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social, spoke openly on stage on Friday about the difficulties he and other companies face in the conservative “parallel economy”.
“The key is, can we build something indestructible and unstoppable?” said. “I will tell you there are real headwinds that we learn, and I think this is where Congress should look.”
At last year’s CPAC, Social Truth and Conservative Twitter-clone Gettr were front and center, with conservatives pushing the idea of creating an alternative world in technology where conservatives could avoid what they saw as censorship and speak freely about their beliefs and values.
Since then, the crypto market has collapsed, Elon Musk took over Twitter, and Meta decided that Trump could be allowed back on the platform, leaving the viability of the parallel digital economy to most of the conservatives in question.
But not all of Big Tech is a target. Speakers repeatedly praised Musk’s Twitter and specifically the “Twitter Files” project, where Musk published internal notes about the old regime of Twitter through several journalists and experts in an attempt to describe political censorship in the company.
The creator of LibsofTikTok Chaya Raichik criticized the big tech taking over her account while also bragging about the number of followers on the platform and promoting books sold on Amazon.
Outside of Nunes’ appearance, Truth Social was not seen at the conference, and Trump did not mention the platform in his keynote speech. Gettr, whose CEO Jason Miller recently left the company to work with Trump on his presidential campaign, also did not have a significant presence at the conference.
Tech founders at the conference told NBC News that they believe some companies that are part of the “parallel economy” movement are achieving their aspirations.
John McEntee, founder and CEO of the conservative dating app The Right Stuff and a former Trump administration official, said some people who start companies that want to replace existing tech companies may not realize the difficulties they face.
“I think a lot of people here are like, ‘oh, we can do that’ without really understanding how difficult the technology is and how much the user expects,” he said. “They don’t know how hard it is, you know, you want to change one thing and all the things behind it have to change.”
McEntee said his company itself is growing its user base by 30,000 users, and is on the path to financial sustainability with premium membership products, but describes the challenge of converting users who are already saturated with multiple offerings in the tech space.
“It’s very difficult to create a new profile when he’s already on three other profiles,” he said.
McEntee said the seed funding of the company led by conservative tech mogul Peter Thiel will last at least until the summer of this year, but he needs to start looking for more funding.
Andrew Riddaugh, who also worked in the Trump White House and is now the CEO of Liberation Technology Services, which offers independent web hosting and development services, said he thinks successful conservative companies are the ones that actually innovate in the tech space rather than just offering alternatives. .
“When you look back, those who work on innovation and new user experiences, or new products and tools, that’s what you still see,” he said. “If you don’t have something that makes you unique, users will default to what people already know and use.”