Google hires social justice warriors. Take a look at the Google homepage on holidays.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee later this year over Republican concerns that the company is biased against conservatives and will also attend a meeting with President Donald Trump, government officials said Friday.
Republicans want to question Google, the search engine of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), about whether its search algorithms are influenced by human bias. They also want to probe it on issues such as privacy, classification of news and opinion and dealing with countries with human rights violations.
Pichai met on Friday with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said, and the pair “discussed a range of issues impacting internet platforms and the economy in general.”
Pichai accepted an invitation to attend a White House roundtable with Trump and other internet stakeholders, the White House said.
Pichai met with senior Republican lawmakers on Friday to discuss their concerns, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
McCarthy told reporters after the meeting that the meeting was “very productive” and “frank.”
“I think we’ve really shown that there is bias, which is human nature, but you have to have transparency and fairness,” McCarthy said. “As big tech’s business grows, we have not had enough transparency and that has led to an erosion of trust and, perhaps worse, harm to consumers.”
Google has repeatedly denied accusations of bias against conservatives. Pichai left the meeting without comment.