INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Google CEO Sundar Pichai will meet in private with Republican lawmakers on Friday to discuss issues including its work in China and alleged
political bias, reports the Wall Street Journal
The meeting was organized by House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy, who has accused Google of &controlling the internet& by boosting negative
news stories about conservatives in its search results, despite the company denials.
The WSJ reports that Pichai also plans to appear at a
House Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled to take place in November after the mid-term elections.
Pichai told the newspaper that &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 long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year.
A vocal
opponent of net neutrality, McCarthy tweeted earlier this month that &an invite will be on its way& to Google, which he accused in the same
tweet of making a &silent donation& to an unnamed left-wing group to stop Trump; working with Russia and China to censor the Internet even
though it cancelled a United States military contract and ignoring a Senate hearing.
McCarthy told the WSJ that &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.
As an example of what he claims to be Google anti-conservative bias, McCarthy previouslycited search
results that listed &Nazism& under the California Republican Party ideologies
Google blamed vandalism on Wikipedia for the descriptor, which appeared in an information box, and quickly removed it.
Though McCarthy did
not specify what contract he was referring to in his tweet, it may have been Project Maven, an aerial drone imaging program that provided
artificial intelligence to the Department of Defense
Google reportedly decided not to renew the contract when it expires because of ethical concerns and employee backlash.
In August, however,
sources told the Intercept that Google is working on a version of its search engine for China, code-named Project Dragonfly, that would
adhere to the government censorship regulations
This prompted bipartisan outcry and more employee backlash, including the resignation of senior research scientist Jack Poulson.Poulson told
the Intercept that about five of Google employees have resigned over Project Dragonfly, which he says represents ''the forfeiture of our
public human rights commitments.
As part of the Republican Party onslaught against what it perceives to be political bias on social media,
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will also meet with state attorneys general to discuss social media alleged suppression of conservative
users.
TechCrunch has contacted Google for comment.
