【Melodrama Archives】

The Melodrama Archiveshead of a tech giant is on the congressional hot seat again.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning. The hearing, titled Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices, focused on a range of issues, including: allegations of anti-conservative bias, data collection, and a censored search engine in China.

Conservative representatives hammered on allegations of anti-conservative bias, which Pichai refuted. Other issues included the Google Plus data breach, Russian manipulation of the platform, and even how search fundamentally works.

"We bring choice, transparency, and control to our users," Pichai said. "These values are built into all of our products."

Pichai focused his opening statement on being a "technological optimist" and the amount of jobs and capital that Google adds to the US economy.

Once questioning began, it quickly turned to questions of political bias. Pichai was categorical when faced with the allegation that Google Search favors liberal content.

"Our algorithms have no notion of political sentiment," Pichai said.

Conservative representatives cited one study in particular that said that Google Search's political bias swayed voters in favor of Hillary Clinton. Pichai said that Google took issue with that study's methodology, and refuted its results. Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, replied: "What does methodology have to do with the fact that 96 percent of search results were from liberal sources?"

Rep. Smith's statistic about "96 percent of search results" has been debunked.

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Pichai echoed the sentiment again and again that Google does not manipulate its algorithm based on political bias. Representatives were not satisfied with his remarks.

"Somebody out there is doing something," Ohio Republican Steve Chabot said. "I think it's happening."

When Rep. Jackson Lee asked Pichai about the planned Chinese search engine and how it would impact human rights, Pichai said that Google had no plans to launch a search product in China.

"Right now we have no plans to launch in China, Pichai said. "We don’t have a search product there. Getting access to information is an important human right. But right now there are no plans to launch search in China."

Pichai previously confirmed plans for its Chinese search engine, which has sparked widespread opposition. His statements parse the development of the product — which Pichai has confirmed — from plans for implementation.

"We have undertaken an internal effort," Pichai specified when pressed.

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Pichai faced questions about Google Plus data breaches. He focused on how Google detects bugs to improve its services, and skirted inquiries about why it did not notify users immediately.

A recentNew York Timesstory about location data advertising also guided several lines of questioning. Pichai maintained that Google does not sell data, and that its users have control over the data they share; Pichai touted Google's "privacy checkup" tool many times over.

Still, on location data and other information that Google collects, many members of the House were skeptical that users fully understood the amount of information they were sharing with Google and other advertisers.

"Do you think the average consumer understands that Google will collect this volume of information when they click through to accept the terms of service?" Rep. Bob Goodlate (R-VA) asked.

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Pichai had to face up to many of the same issues that his CEO-peer Mark Zuckerberg did when he testified before Congress in April. Data privacy, bias, manipulation by foreign powers, diversity, and whether Google is a monopoly are all now matters of public record.

This might have been Pichai's first visit to Congress. But it likely won't be Google's last.