Google CEO visits D.C., will return for Trump roundtable
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Google CEO Sundar Pichai went to Washington on Friday to discuss concerns about the company’s business practices with members of Congress and emerged with an invitation to meet with President Donald Trump during an upcoming roundtable.
Larry Kudlow, the head of the National Economic Council, extended the invitation while meeting with Mr. Pichai and the offer was accepted, according to the White House.
Other “internet stakeholders” will be invited to the same roundtable with Mr. Trump, the White House said, with other details, including the date, still to come.
Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Trump has recently accused Google of rigging the results of its influential search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute “fake news.” Google has denied any political bias.
The White House said Mr. Kudlow discussed the internet and the economy with Mr. Pichai on Friday, and described the talks as “positive and productive.”
Mr. Pichai made the rounds in Washington just a few weeks after he and his boss, Google cofounder Larry Page, irked lawmakers by skipping a public hearing.
There was plenty to talk about, based on recent remarks by both lawmakers and Mr. Trump.
That includes recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored results to comply with the demands of that country’s Communist government. Also potential new regulations that would define how much personal information that internet companies can collect about people using their services.
Both Mr. Trump and some U.S. lawmakers have been raising the possibility of asking government regulators to investigate whether Google has abused its power to thwart competition through its dominant search engine and other widely used services, which include Gmail, YouTube, the Chrome web browser and its Android software that runs most of the world’s smartphones.