Tech industry gets hints of Democrats’ agenda as Google CEO testifies
WASHINGTON — Google CEO Sundar Pichai — and other tech executives who might be watching — got hints Tuesday of what issues they can expect to face as Democrats take control of the House in three weeks.
While Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee grilled Pichai on what they perceive as bias against conservatives, top committee Democrat Jerrold Nadler said lawmakers should examine issues such as the spread of misinformation online and Russians’ efforts to influence U.S. elections online.
The issue of user privacy also came up over and over. Looming over the tech industry is the possibility of government regulation intended to protect people’s data and a deeper look into whether gigantic companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook need to be broken up.
Pichai’s first appearance before Congress comes after he angered members of a Senate panel in September by declining their invitation to testify about election manipulation. Pichai’s no-show at that hearing was marked by an empty chair for Google alongside the Facebook and Twitter executives who did appear. Lawmakers declined Google’s offer to send lower-level executives.
Pichai went to Washington later in September to mend fences, meeting two dozen Republicans and indicating he also planned to meet Democrats. He took part in last week’s White House meeting with other tech executives on getting government and businesses working more closely on accelerating emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Pichai reiterated Google’s position that it has no plans “right now” to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored results to comply with the demands of that country’s Communist government. If that changes, Pichai promised to be “fully transparent” about the move. Pichai has said that he wants Google to be in China serving Chinese users.
The CEO also insisted that Google’s search engine is not biased against any political viewpoint.
U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging search results to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute “fake news.” The company has denied any such bias, and while the question has dogged tech companies for years, there’s no evidence of an anti-conservative or any other political tilt.
Nadler called the notion of bias a “delusion” and a “right-wing conspiracy theory.” The Democrat said Tuesday’s hearing was the committee’s fourth to address the topic — and he suggested he’d move on to other topics as Democrats take control.
Pichai, a former engineer, took the helm of Google in 2015 in a major restructuring that made Google a division of conglomerate Alphabet Inc. — whose businesses include Waymo, a selfdriving technology development company. Bolstering the dominance of its search engine, Google’s Android operating system runs most of the world’s smartphones. Its other services include Gmail, YouTube, online ads and the Chrome web browser.