Is Big Tech a Threat?: A Debate

Calendar
DATE
February 24, 2021
Location
LOCATION
Online
Clock
TIME
7:30 p.m. ET

Is It Too Late to Curtail the Power of Big Tech?

Twitter purges more than 70,000 users. Google and Amazon banish the Parler app. Facebook blocks ads promoting . . . a novel about Abraham Lincoln?

Welcome to the power of Big Tech. The tech giants—who have amassed unimaginable data on all of us—can shut down our ability to speak in an instant.

The problem has grown so acute that America’s FCC commissioner recently proclaimed that Big Tech “now has more control over more speech than any institution in history.” Even prominent liberals are sounding the alarm.

Big TechThe question is: Can anything be done?

On Wednesday, February 24, tune in to this debate to learn about just how much of a threat Big Tech poses to American democracy—and about the competing ideas to curtail the tech giants’ power.

Does the federal government need to intervene to break up Big Tech? Or is decentralization the answer?

The Conservative Partnership Institute’s Rachel Bovard and the Cato Institute’s Will Duffield will debate these and other questions at 7:30 p.m. ET on February 24.

The Hudson Institute’s Marshall Kosloff will moderate as Bovard and Duffield take up this motion: “Resolved: Big Tech Is a Threat to American Democracy.”

You’ll be hearing a lot about the tyranny of Big Tech in the coming months. So don’t miss this opportunity to learn from two leading thinkers on the issue.

This debate is a part of the Diana Davis Spencer Debate Series and is presented by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual.

The Debaters

Rachel Bovard

Rachel Bovard has more than a decade of experience fighting for conservative policies in Washington. Now senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute, she has served as legislative director for Senator Rand Paul as well as policy director for the Senate Steering Committee. She also was director of policy services for the Heritage Foundation. Bovard earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Grove City College and a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.

Will Duffield
Will Duffield

Will Duffield is a policy analyst in the Cato Institute’s Center for Representative Government, where he studies speech and internet governance. His research focuses on the web of government regulation and private rules that govern Americans’ speech online. Duffield received his bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and completed a master’s in political theory at the London School of Economics.

Marshall Kosloff
Marshall Kosloff (moderator)

Marshall Kosloff is a media fellow at Hudson Institute, where he cohosts The Realignment podcast. Previously, he was a researcher at PBS’s Firing Line with Margaret Hoover and participated in the Public Interest Fellowship. Kosloff earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Oregon.