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All the news from Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee

Earlier this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before the House Judiciary Committee on a wide-ranging set of issues, from alleged liberal bias in search results to YouTube moderation issues to the company’s plans to launch a search product for the Chinese market. The event was notable because it was Pichai’s first appearance before the Republican-controlled House, after a long string of such congressional hearings over the last two years, but also because it happens to coincide with one of Google’s most contentious moments in its history.

The company is facing employee revolt over its China plans and government contract work, as well as the threat of regulation and the unfounded but widespread belief that it unfairly punishes conservative viewpoints in its search rankings and other products. With Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin effectively out of the picture, it’s now up to Pichai to defend the company and forge a way forward.

  • Russell Brandom

    Dec 12, 2018

    Russell Brandom

    Congress thinks Google has a bias problem — does it?

    On Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before the House Judiciary Committee, after months of escalating pressure. There were lots of issues to talk about — radicalization on YouTube, the company’s fraught relationship with China, and the staff revolt over Andy Rubin’s severance agreement, for a start — but members of Congress really just wanted to talk about bias.

    “Google has long faced criticism for manipulating search results to censor conservatives,” Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX) told Pichai, citing studies by prominent Google critic Robert Epstein. “Those who write the algorithms get the results that they must want….In your opening statement you mentioned your desire to provide information that was without political bias. Clearly that’s not working. So what are you going to do to improve that situation?”

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  • Dec 12, 2018

    Colin Lecher

    What Google’s CEO told Congress about China — and what he didn’t

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, and lawmakers peppered him with everything from allegations of bias against conservatives to questions about location data.

    It could hardly be said that the focus of the hearing was on Google’s plans for China, but the subject did come up from a handful of lawmakers, who expressed concern over reports that Google has been working on a search product that would comply with the Chinese government’s stringent surveillance and censorship demands. The project, codenamed Dragonfly, has led to protests from both human rights activists and Google employees.

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  • Dec 11, 2018

    Julia Alexander

    Google still has no answers for YouTube’s biggest problem

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee
    Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images

    From Pizzagate to QAnon, YouTube has a serious problem with conspiracy theories. The basic moderation problem has splintered into a number of different scandals over the past two years, including disturbing children’s content, terrorism videos, white supremacy dog whistling, and radicalization via YouTube’s algorithm. But when confronted on those issues at a House Judiciary hearing today, Pichai offered the same response that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has offered in the past: there is no immediate cure.

    The most vigorous questions came from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who confronted Pichai over a Washington Post report on conspiracy videos that plague YouTube. These videos, which he summarized as “videos claiming politicians, celebrities, and other elite figures were sexually abusing or consuming the remains of children,” are part of a conspiracy theory that suggests Hillary Clinton is killing young girls in satanic rituals.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Dec 11, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    Google’s CEO had to remind Congress that Google doesn’t make iPhones

    House GOP Members Meet to Elect Leadership Positions
    Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    In any congressional hearing about technology, at least a few lawmakers will use Silicon Valley executives as their own personal tech support staff. But usually, the questions at least involve products that their companies actually make. So Google CEO Sundar Pichai got particularly unlucky at a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee today, when Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asked Pichai to explain why his daughter’s iPhone was acting strangely.

    “I have a seven-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 told Pichai. “And up on there pops a picture of her grandfather. And I’m not going to say into the record what kind of language was used around that picture of her grandfather, but I’d ask you: how does that show up on a seven-year-old’s iPhone, who’s playing a kid’s game?”

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  • Dec 11, 2018

    Colin Lecher

    How Sundar Pichai defended Google before Congress

    Questioning Google CEO Sundar Pichai for the first time, House lawmakers could have hammered on any number of controversies. The company’s plans for China, Google+ data breaches, and whether tech giants need to be more closely regulated all might have taken center stage.

    But while lawmakers brought up all of those issues this morning at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, the Pichai hearing was dominated by allegations of bias against conservatives, as Democrats struggled to counter the narrative while introducing new questions. “We need to be sure that any political bias within Google’s workforce does not creep into its workforce,” Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in an opening statement. Minutes later, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) was calling the idea “entirely fictitious” — a “fantasy dreamed up by some conservatives.”

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  • Adi Robertson

    Dec 11, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    Sundar Pichai had to explain to Congress why Googling ‘idiot’ turns up pictures of Trump

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee
    Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

    In a House Judiciary Committee hearing today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was asked to explain why a Google image search for “idiot” turned up pictures of Donald Trump — and whether that was a case of intentional bias.

    The question came from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who was trying to refute the idea that Google is politically manipulating search results. “Right now, if you google the word ‘idiot’ under images, a picture of Donald Trump comes up. I just did that,” she said. “How would that happen?”

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  • Dec 11, 2018

    Colin Lecher

    Human rights groups press Google on China plans ahead of Pichai testimony

    A Google logo sits at the center of ominous concentric circles
    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    Dozens of human rights groups signed on to an open letter today protesting Google’s plans for China, as CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to testify before a House committee tomorrow.

    “We are writing to ask you to ensure that Google drops Project Dragonfly and any plans to launch a censored search app in China, and to re-affirm the company’s 2010 commitment that it won’t provide censored search services in the country,” the letter, which is addressed to Pichai, begins.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Dec 6, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    The long, tortured quest to make Google unbiased

    Illustration by Alex Castro

    Next week, Sundar Pichai will try to reassure Congress that Google’s search engine isn’t rigged. The Google CEO is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, answering questions about “potential bias and the need for greater transparency” in Google’s business practices. It’s Republican lawmakers’ latest move in a series of hearings over Silicon Valley political bias. “Google has created some of the most powerful and impressive technology applications,” wrote House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the announcement. “Unfortunately, recent reports suggest Google might not be wielding its vast power impartially. Its business practices may have been affected by political bias.”

    We don’t know exactly what questions will arise during Pichai’s testimony. But this summer, President Donald Trump caused a brief uproar by claiming (without evidence) that Google suppressed positive news about him. Reports indicated Trump might even direct regulators to investigate Google and other platforms for bias. But that proposal hadn’t come from one of Silicon Valley’s many ideological enemies — it was supposedly promoted by recommendations site Yelp, which has spent years protesting what it calls unfair demotion of its search results.

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  • Casey Newton

    Dec 5, 2018

    Casey Newton

    Google’s appearance before Congress will mark a turning point for its CEO

    Business, Tech And Media Luminaries Attend New York Times DealBook Conference
    Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at the New York Times DealBook conference in November.
    Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

    On Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify before the House Judiciary Committee. In some ways, the hearing will represent the end of an era. It’s the last time we will see a top tech executive addressing this Republican-controlled Congress before Democrats take over the House of Representatives next year. Mercifully, that likely means we will go another two years without a House hearing called to investigate spurious claims of platform “bias” against conservatives.

    Makena Kelly tells us what to expect:

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  • Makena Kelly

    Dec 4, 2018

    Makena Kelly

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai to testify before House committee on December 11th

    Business, Tech And Media Luminaries Attend New York Times DealBook Conference
    Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, December 11th at 10AM ET, a committee spokesperson confirmed to The Verge. The hearing was originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 5th, but it was postponed due to scheduling conflicts with former President George H.W. Bush’s funeral events.

    Pichai is anticipated to face intense questioning from Republican lawmakers who are concerned with the Silicon Valley giant’s algorithms and how they may be biased to more conservative content.

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