US: Google CEO will meet GOP this week

On Friday, September 28, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to privately meet with some of the top Republican lawmakers in Washington, DC.

Later this year, Pichai also is scheduled to attend a public hearing at a House Judiciary Committee in November after the midterm elections.

The announcement came two weeks after Google failed to send a high-level representative to appear before the Congress Intelligence Committee along with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The move was sharply criticized by lawmakers and media alike. In advance of the hearing, Google offered its chief legal officer Kent Walker, who was rejected by the Congress committee which wished to see Pichai or the Alphabet CEO Larry Page.

“I look forward to meeting with members on both sides of the aisle, answering a wide range of questions, and explaining our approach,” Pichai said in a statement published by the Wall Street Journal. “These meetings will continue Google’s long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year.”

The meeting with Pichai was organized by the House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R – CA) who has repeatedly criticized major tech companies over the past few months. He said 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.”

On Tuesday, September 25, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with state attorneys general to discuss the alleged stifling of conservative speech online, as well as possible antitrust concerns related to Google as well as Facebook and others. On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing focused on internet privacy concerns, amid growing bipartisan calls for legislation to govern online data collection and use.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal