Google's Empty Chair Gets Starring Role at Hearing
September 05 2018 - 4:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Douglas MacMillan
Alphabet Inc. played the role of punching bag at Wednesday's
Congressional hearing, even if none of the search giant's
executives were on hand to absorb the blows.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, declined to send Chief
Executive Larry Page to appear at the hearing, where U.S. senators
grilled Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and
Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey about issues including Russian
meddling, online privacy and political bias on tech platforms.
Mr. Page's absence at times threatened to overshadow the remarks
of the other executives and drew the ire of some lawmakers.
In noting the empty chair with a placard bearing Google's name,
senators chided the internet company for failing to publicly
address key issues around the use of online platforms. The public
beating could expose Google to even further scrutiny by policy
makers in Washington, several of whom have recently proposed
measures to regulate the search giant, including privacy
protections and a potential antitrust review.
"Given its size and influence, I would have thought that
leadership at Google would have wanted to demonstrate how seriously
it takes these challenges and to actually take a leadership role in
this important discussion," Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) said in his
remarks. "Unfortunately, they didn't choose to make that
decision."
Google had offered to send Kent Walker, its top lawyer, to
appear at the hearing, but last month Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.),
who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee on election
interference, said he had rejected that offer, apparently in an
effort to force a more senior executive to appear.
In a written testimony Google submitted on Sept. 5, Mr. Walker
said the company has worked to prevent any attempts to undermine
democratic elections.
Google became a popular target for Washington politicians this
summer, from Mr. Warner and Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), who has
asked Google to explain why it's developing a censored search
engine for China, to President Trump, who last week tweeted his
concerns that its search results are biased against conservative
viewpoints.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission last week, GOP Sen.
Orrin Hatch called for the agency to investigate Google for
possible antitrust behavior that he called "disquieting."
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 05, 2018 15:48 ET (19:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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