Google CEO rejects GOP claim of political bias
Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai kicked off his first appearance before Congress on Tuesday, refuting claims of bias, explaining the company’s privacy approach and stressing its American roots.
As the hearing began, the heads of both political parties led with questions about Google’s data collection. Republican Bob Goodlatte asked how much personal information Google absorbs via its Android mobile software.
Pichai stressed that users opt in to certain data-tracking features, giving the example of fitness apps that measure steps. However, the CEO did not directly respond to a question about whether Android device users fully understand the terms of the operating system. “Beyond the terms of service, we actually offer, we remind users to do a privacy checkup,” he said. “And we make it very obvious.”
Republican Lamar Smith asked whether Google’s search engine is biased against conservatives, citing studies. Pichai refuted those findings and said no employees have the ability to skew search results. “There are always studies which can show one set of data and arrive at a conclusion,” Pichai said. “But we have looked at results on our top news category. We find that we have a wide variety of sources.”
Pichai’s testimony was overshadowed by the memory of his empty chair from a September hearing he skipped. It caps a year filled with setbacks and stumbles that chilled relations between tech giants and Capitol Hill.
“It was necessary to convene this hearing because of the widening gap of distrust between technology companies and the American people,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, citing China, antitrust and anti-conservative bias as concerns.
McCarthy, a California Republican once viewed as close to tech, has been a prime mover behind the hearing and accusations of political bias. Democrats, who will take over the committee in 2019, have also previously pushed Silicon Valley officials on concerns about their size, foreign countries’ use of tech platforms to try to influence elections and a lack of workforce diversity.
The much-watched hearing got off to a boisterous start with Donald Trump associate Roger Stone in the room along with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who shouted at Pichai about China as the CEO entered the hearing room.
“You bet on the wrong country, Sundar!” Jones said, calling the company “absolutely the most evil corporation on Earth.”
The Infowars personality, who has accused tech platforms of censoring him, previously appeared outside a September hearing with Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, which resulted in his ban from Twitter for abusive behavior.
Concerns about Google’s plans to re-enter China, codenamed “Dragonfly,” have upset some employees of company and members of Congress. Pichai has insisted the initiative is an experiment.
“In order to protect free speech we need to have companies that are promoting that and are negotiating and holding out for that in countries like China,” Goodlatte, the panel’s Republican chairman, said in a Monday interview with Fox Business.
Politicians have already demanded to know why Google seems willing to censor search results at the behest of Chinese Community Party but has pulled back from two contracts with the U.S. military.
“Right now, we have no plans to launch in China,” Pichai said on Tuesday. “We don’t have a search product there. Our core mission is to provide information to users. Getting access to information is an important human right.”
Google stopped providing its search engine in China in 2008 after the government demanded results be censored. But the world’s largest internet market is attractive to any global company, and a return could signal Google is prioritizing its business over human rights.
Pichai described Dragonfly as an “internal effort” and said the number of employees working on it was “limited.” However, he declined to answer direct questions on whether Google staff have stopped working on the project or if he would commit to not launch such a product.