Google CEO Sundar Pichai faces first Capitol Hill grilling
Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify on Capitol Hill for the first time on Tuesday, as the search giant makes headlines for a string of recent controversies.
The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee is called “Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices.”
The committee says the hearing – which was rescheduled around President George H. W. Bush’s funeral – will examine “potential bias” at Google and the need for greater transparency where its filtering practices are concerned.
Many conservatives, including Republican lawmakers, are concerned Google’s search feature has obscured search results for right-leaning publications.
President Trump has also weighed in, claiming the search giant features negative stories about himself and his administration.
However, the hearing could very well cover a number of recent topics that have landed Google in the news.
On Monday, a second technical glitch on the company’s Google Plus platform resulted in the decision to shut it down earlier than expected. Potentially exposed information included names and email addresses, among other sensitive data.
Google’s marketplace dominance is another topic that could arise: Trump cited the search giant as one of the companies he said could face antitrust action.
There have also been a slew of employee protests to consider.
Last month, employees at the company called for it to end an initiative called Project Dragonfly, which is a plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China. Lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the project.
Employees protested the company’s involvement with the U.S. military, where concerns over how its technologies were being used by the Defense Department contributed to a decision to pull its bid for a $10 billion cloud contract.
Meanwhile, workers have also questioned Google’s handling of sexual harassment claims, after reports surfaced that the search giant protected multiple executives accused of misconduct.
Google executives opted not to attend a tech-focused hearing earlier this year, drawing intense scrutiny from lawmakers. Facebook and Twitter executives were in attendance.