The letter comes as the House Judiciary Committee and the Antitrust Subcommittee is just about to hold a hearing featuring Pichai, along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, all of whom are likewise complicit in censoring conservative voices and media outlets.
The MRC's Newsbusters website, by the way, is among those that no longer appear when searching Google for news and current events. Other blacklisted sites include Breitbart News, The Daily Wire, Free Beacon, The Blaze, Townhall, Project Veritas, LifeNews, and PragerU.
"This past Wednesday July 21, several conservative media platforms, including four of Media Research Center's (MRC) major sites, were removed from Google's search results. Google's official response was that this was the result of a technical glitch," the letter states in its opening paragraph. "We don't believe you."
"We believe Google is lying yet again. It's the same old game. Censor conservatives, wait for someone else to call you out on it, then blame the algorithms or another technical problem for the censorship. Somehow you never manage to discover your own glitch. It’s always your victims who do."
The letter goes on to call out Pichai directly for his company's "utter lack of transparency," which "has become second nature to you and your organization." It further adds that this is well beyond shameful, representing "a clear and present danger to our civil society."
To get to the bottom of this continued problem, the letter asks Pichai directly to give an account of who is responsible. Is there a certain division or company executive who keeps giving the green light for more censorship, or is some rogue programming team altering the system algorithms without permission?
The letter further asks how Pichai is planning to handle the situation based on what comes to light, including what information he plans to present to both Congress and the companies that have been directly impacted by what has taken place.
"How many more times will Google censor conservatives, and then lie about it before Congress has to take action against your company?" it also asks.
"The time has passed for lame excuses. If you won't be honest and fix the problem, then Congress must act decisively to counter the threat to freedom of speech from you and other Big Tech companies. It's time for the federal government to consider antitrust solutions for companies like Google and the rest of the Big Tech industry that have grown too powerful and too irresponsible."
No longer can Google claim to be neutral in all of this. It is obvious and undeniable that its former "Don't Be Evil" slogan is no longer relevant now that censorship of the company's political enemies has become the norm. It remains to be seen, however, whether or not Google will tell the truth or lie under oath, to its own eventual detriment.
This letter was signed by many others outside of the MRC, including the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Human Events, The Resurgent, Young America's Foundation, Tea Party Patriots Action, The Western Journal, Eagle Forum, ACT for America, The Heartland Institute, the National Center for Public Policy Research, and numerous others.
Big Tech censorship is completely out of control, and needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. To learn more, check out Censorship.news.
Sources for this article include: