The Tech Industry Was A Major Focus At CPAC, But Conservatives Developing Reforms Are Caught Up In Obstacles

During one of the biggest gatherings of conservative politicians and personalities, big tech was once again in the crosshairs.

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Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., have both addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) during their speeches. During their speech, Sen. Schmitt and Blackburn attacked big tech and the legal immunity companies enjoy under Section 230, which is currently being considered by the Supreme Court.

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The Republican Representative from Colorado, Lauren Boebert, said in her speech on Saturday that she has called on Congress to remove the Section 230 protections that are protecting big tech companies who are hiding behind it, and acting like editors and not publishers.

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Unlike last year's conference, speakers at this year's event shied away from promoting the grand utopian vision of a conservative "parallel economy" that was shielded from the power of progressive values, in contrast to last year's conference.

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Business leaders and elected officials, instead, shared a more weathered perspective, criticizing the failed promises of technologies like cryptocurrency, a technology that many conservatives embraced over the past year. Furthermore, they acknowledged that it is difficult for startups to compete with tech behemoths and that it can be difficult to turn startups into companies that can eventually scale and thrive independently of politically motivated investors, despite the fact that they are competing against them.

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A CEO of former President Donald Trump's Truth Social, Devin Nunes, spoke openly on stage Friday about the difficulties his company and others are facing as a result of the conservative "parallel economy."

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“I think the key was, were we able to build something that big tech could not tear down or stop?” he said. “We are experiencing real headwinds, and I think this is where Congress should focus its attention.”

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There was an air of excitement at last year's CPAC regarding conservative Twitter clone Gettr and Truth Social, both of which were front and center, with conservatives riding high on the idea of creating a technology world that would allow them to express themselves freely while avoiding what they viewed as censorship.

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Since then, crypto markets have crashed, Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, and Meta has decided that Trump can be allowed back on its platforms, making the viability of a parallel digital economy for most conservatives in doubt.

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In spite of this, not all Big Tech companies were targeted by the government. Musk’s Twitter, particularly the “Twitter Files” project, in which Musk released internal records about Twitter's old regime through several journalists and pundits, was praised repeatedly by speakers, attempting to demonstrate political censorship within Twitter.

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Chaya Raichik, the creator of LibsofTikTok, criticized how big tech companies have treated her accounts while boasting about the number of followers she has on these platforms, as well as promoting her book sold through Amazon.

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Besides Nunes’ appearance, there did not seem to be any notable presence of Truth Social at the conference, and Trump didn’t mention the platform in his keynote speech at all. In addition to Gettr, whose CEO Jason Miller recently left the company to work on Trump's presidential campaign, Gettr was also absent from the conference as well.

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Some tech founders at the conference believe some companies involved in the "parallel economy" movement got ahead of themselves.

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Founder and CEO of conservative dating app The Right Stuff and a former official in the Trump administration, John McEntee, said he believed some founders of new tech companies that were intended to replace existing technology companies might not have realized the difficulties that lie ahead.

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The majority of people here had the impression that ‘Oh, we can do that’ without realizing how difficult tech stuff really is and how much a user expects. You know, they don’t realize how difficult that is, because if you change one thing, all of these things have to change on the back end.”

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McEntee said that his company is growing to a user base of 30,000 users and that it is on its way to achieving financial sustainability with its premium membership product, however, he described the difficulty of converting users who are already saturated with a wide range of technology offerings.

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“Making a new profile is difficult when they have three already,” he said.

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Despite receiving seed funding from conservative tech mogul Peter Thiel, McEntee said the company will need to find another round of funding soon.

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A former White House worker, Andrew Riddaugh is now the CEO of Liberation Technology Services, which offers independent hosting and development services for websites and blogs. He also worked in the Trump White House. According to him, conservative companies that are having success are those that are actually innovating rather than simply offering a substitute in the tech world.

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“As far as innovation and new user experiences are concerned, or new products and tools are concerned, those are the ones that you still see around when you look back," he continued. “Unless you have something that makes you unique, users will be tempted to use what they are already familiar with and will use if you don't have something special to offer.

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