With Google CEO Sundar Pichai present via video chat, along with several other Big Tech heads, Rep. Gaetz laid into the world's most used search engine, calling it out for manipulating search algorithms and censoring conservative voices.
"It seems to be no coincidence that sites like Gateway Pundit, the Western Journal, American Spectator, Daily Caller, and Breitbart that receive the ire or the negative treatment as a consequence of your manual tooling," Rep. Gaetz stated directly to Pichai.
"And it also seems noteworthy that whistleblowers at your own company have spoken out. You said that one of the reasons you maintain this manual tool is to stop election interference, I believe it is in fact your company that is engaging in election interference."
Upon being pressed, Pichai did admit that his company does allow for the "manual manipulation" of its search algorithm, to the detriment of websites and personalities that do not lean left.
"You're using your market dominance in search to accomplish that election interference," Rep. Gaetz added, to denials from Pichai.
"I strongly disagree with that characterization," Pichai stated, adding:
"We don't approach this work with any political viewpoint. We do that to comply with law, known copyright violations, very narrow circumstances and we have to do that to comply with the law, and in many cases, those requests come [from] law enforcement agencies."
Rep. Gaetz also wants Facebook investigated for lying to Congress
Just prior to this hearing, Rep. Gaetz's office had filed a criminal complaint against Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of making a "materially false statement to Congress while under oath" during two joint hearings that occurred back in April 2018.
Rep. Gaetz wants the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate Zuckerberg for "repeatedly and categorically" lying about how Facebook "engage[s] in bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics" as well as lying about the fact that Facebook "censored and suppressed content supportive of President Donald Trump and other conservatives."
A June 2020 report put out by Project Veritas found that the majority of content filtered out by Facebook's artificial intelligence (AI) system favored Trump or other Republican candidates, which Rep. Gaetz cited as evidence.
"Oversight is an essential part of Congress' constitutional authority," Rep. Gaetz wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
"As a member of this body, I question Mr. Zuckerberg's veracity, and challenge his willingness to cooperate with our oversight authority, diverting congressional resources during time-sensitive investigations, and materially impeding our work. Such misrepresentations are not only unfair, they are potentially illegal and fraudulent."
The goal is to force Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook to treat all of their users and visitors fairly, no matter their political leaning. This is what these platforms are supposed to be doing already under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which only provides immunity protections for companies that act as content providers, rather than content curators.
"Ok Matt – so what are you going to do about it?" asked one Breitbart News commenter, obviously fed up with the all talk, no action posture of "conservative" congressmen in never actually doing anything about the problem.
"Exactly," responded another, adding that it is all just "constant whining from our conservative representatives and nothing is ever done. As much as I despise libs, they put words into actions."
More related news on the censorship front is available at Censorship.news.
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