Pichai’s testimony: Memorable moments from lawmakers
Google CEO’s appearance was full of soundbite-worthy questions, answers
Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee centered on Republican lawmakers’ accusations of bias against the tech giant. But in a hearing full of soundbite-worthy questions and answers, Democratic lawmakers also got their point across in memorable ways.
For example, some Republican lawmakers complained at Tuesday’s hearing about negative news articles about them coming up in Google search results.
So Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles, did a real-time search on Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
“First article that pops up is from ABC News,” Lieu said. “It says ‘Steve King’s racist immigration talk prompts calls for congressional censure.’… You don’t have a group of people at Google sitting there thinking and trying to modify search results. That’s not what’s happening, right?” Pichai said no.
“If you want positive search results, do positive things,” Lieu said. “If you don’t want negative search results, don’t do negative things. … If you’re getting bad press articles and bad search results, don’t blame Google or Facebook or Twitter — consider blaming yourself.”
King’s own exchange Tuesday with Google’s chief executive — during which he asked for names of the company’s employees who work on Google’s search algorithms so lawmakers can check their social media accounts for biases — produced a bit of an oops moment.
“I have a 7-year-old granddaughter who picked up her phone during the election, and she’s playing a little game, the kind of game a kid would play,” King said, addressing Pichai. “And up on there pops a picture of her grandfather… I’d ask you: How does that show up on a 7-year-old’s iPhone, who’s playing a kid’s game?” Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee had some cringe-worthy quotes.