Google has finally decided to take calls for government hearings seriously.
After refusing to send an executive to social media hearings on September 5, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai has agreed to meet privately with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and other Republican party members on Friday, September 28. The discussion will include Google’s censorship of media in China, Google’s declined renewal of its contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, and allegations Google biased search results relating to the 2016 election.
McCarthy said, “Google has a lot of questions to answer about reports of bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behavior, and business dealings with repressive regimes like China.”
A former employee of Google, Jack Poulson, publicly resigned over Google’s Chinese search engine project, “Project Butterfly.” He sent a letter to members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation expressing his concerns after “a pattern of unethical and unaccountable decision making from company leadership” forced him to resign.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Pichai said, “I look forward to meeting with members on both sides of the aisle, answering a wide range of questions, and explaining our approach. These meetings will continue Google’s long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year.”
The Media Research Center has called for congressional hearings of Google in the wake of the leaked Google emails and video showing top execs upset at the 2016 election.
