After talking to an empty chair and delaying a previously scheduled hearing following the death of President George H.W. Bush, Congress finally got the chance to face off against Google CEO today Sundar Pichai during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.
Topics included data privacy, the tech giant's secret plans for China, and whether the company has a bias against conservatives. Unfortunately, Pichai didn't always give a straight answer. Nor were lawmakers' questions free of partisan politics. Here's a breakdown of the key takeaways from today's hearing.
Privacy Regulations
One of the biggest complaints against Google has been the company's data collection practices, which can use your your search history and location to serve you targeted ads.
In its defense, Google has introduced privacy controls that can limit the data the tech giant collects. But during Tuesday's hearing, Pichai was asked if the US government needs to intervene and pass a national privacy law.
"I'm of the opinion we are better off with more of an overarching data protection framework for users and I think that would be good to do," Google's CEO said in response.
He also weighed in on whether the US should adopt data privacy rules like Europe's GDPR, which went into effect earlier this year. "It's a well thought out crafted piece of legislation… I do see value in aligning where we can," Pichai added.
At one point, Google's CEO also faced a testy exchange with Republican Rep. Ted Poe, who supports some GDPR-style protections for the US. Poe demanded to know whether Google could track his physical location across the room through his iPhone.
Pichai said "Not by default. There may be a Google service you may have opted into use." But the answer didn't satisify Poe, who wanted a simple yes or no answer.
"I think the United States Congress needs to move in a direction to allow citizens to opt-in to the dissemination of their information rather than opt-out," he said. "I think most Americans don't know all the things this phone can do."
Conservative Bias
Republicans lawmakers also threatened to impose content regulations on Google, claiming the company's products have been silencing conservative viewpoints. "You're in effect picking winners and losers in political discourse," said Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, who complained about Google results returning negative news about conservative political figures.
One lawmaker also raised questions over whether Google employees have been secretly plotting to manipulate the company's products to oppose the Trump administration. Another asked why Googling the word "idiot" resulted in image results of President Trump.
In response, Pichai said the company's products are simply trying to reflect what's popular and current on the internet. For instance, Google Search will produce results based on over "200 signals" that examine factors like relevance and freshness, but through objective guidelines.
"Our algorithms have no notion of political sentiment," Pichai added.
Democratic US Rep. Ted Lieu, on other hand, noted Google has a First Amendment right to free spech. He also said the company wasn't to blame for the negative search results for Republicans. "If you want positive search results, do positive things. If you don't want negative search results, don't do negative things," he said.
China
Pichai also addressed the company's plan to develop a censored search engine for China, dubbed Project Dragonfly, which has sparked opposition from US lawmakers, human rights groups, and even the company's own employees.
However, Google's CEO portrayed the censored search engine as more of an exploratory internal project that won't be hitting the market any time soon. "Right now we have no plans to launch search in China," he said during the hearing.
Pichai declined to specify how long Google has worked on Project Dragonfly or who has been leading it, but the effort has involved over 100 employees, he said.
Democratic US Rep. David Cicilline also asked whether Pichai would "rule out" launching a tool for surveillance and censorship in China as CEO of Google. But Pichai evaded the question. "Congressman, I commit to engaging," he said, later adding: "We always think it's in our duty to explore possibilities to give users access to information."
Nevertheless, Pichai said his company plans on being "transparent" with US lawmakers in the event Google launches a search product for China.