Google’s top executive has agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee as Republican concerns mount that the company’s signature search engine downplays conservative websites in its results.
Sundar Pichai met on Friday with a group of House lawmakers, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, the second-ranking Republican in the chamber, who announced the hearing.
Pichai said after the meeting that he has had “very productive discussions over the last two days” with both Democrats and Republicans.
“I look forward to being back,” he told the Washington Examiner.
McCarthy told reporters that legislation is possible after the hearing.
Google faced criticism from Senate lawmakers earlier this year when the company declined to send Pichai or another top executive to testify alongside key officials from Facebook and Twitter at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on data privacy.
Since then, the company has been under scrutiny over reported plans to relaunch a censored search engine in China. At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday, a top official confirmed the existence of the project but declined to provide specifics.
McCarthy said the topic was discussed at Friday’s meeting and that Pichai informed lawmakers that no decisions have been made regarding expansion into China.
“I want to make sure that an American company is doing business in China, that’s good for America. I just don’t want to see censorship in the process or government control of it,” McCarthy said.
Google also drew criticism after it informed Senate lawmakers that it allows third-party entities access to customers’ Gmail accounts – with users’ consent.
“The concerns that we have about what’s going on with transparency and the power of social media today, there’s a lot of concerns in the House and in the Senate,” McCarthy said.
