The Hill: President Trump’s fight against Google is making its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress.
Republican lawmakers are ramping up their scrutiny of the tech giant after Trump accused Google of political bias and questioned whether regulators should take a closer look at its market powers. Google added fuel to the fire on Wednesday by skipping a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign influence operations.
The committee sought top executives from each company to testify and successfully secured commitments from Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey.
Google offered to send Kent Walker, its vice president of global affairs. Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), though, rejected that offer in hopes of securing a more senior executive. Google ended up only submitting written testimony from Walker. That move infuriated lawmakers, who took turns blasting Google during the hearing, which included an empty chair.
Burr said that he was “disappointed that Google decided against sending the right senior level executive,” to the hearing.
The anger was bipartisan. Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, piled on in his opening remarks.
“I’m deeply disappointed that Google – one of the most influential digital platforms in the world – chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee,” Warner said.
Lawmakers used the incident to bring attention to their own issues with Google.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speculated that Google didn’t attend either “because they’re arrogant” or because they didn’t want to answer hard questions about their business dealings with China, an issue he has hammered the company over.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also slammed Google for ending programs with the Pentagon while keeping ties with Huawei, a Chinese telecom company that U.S. intelligence agencies have raised security concerns about.
“Perhaps Google didn’t send a senior executive today because they’ve recently taken actions such as terminating cooperation they had with the American military,” Cotton said, “programs like artificial intelligence which are designed not just to protect our troops and to help them fight and win our country’s wars but to protect civilians as well.”
“Perhaps they didn’t send a witness to answer these questions, because there is no answer to these questions,” he added.
Tech experts said Google can expect more trouble ahead and worry the company missed an important chance to publicly defend their practices.
“Google is going to see long-term pain because of this,” said Christian Hertenstein, vice president of the right-leaning political strategy group Definers.
Hertenstein highlighted GOP concerns over China.
“Google avoiding the committee is only going to raise suspicion on how they operate in China,” he added.
The hearing largely crystallized in a public setting the building frustration on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration with one of Silicon Valley’s titans.
Google and other tech and social media companies are already taking heat from Trump over claims of political bias.
Despite the denials, Republicans see a potent political issue and one that resonates with their base. Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week said he would convene a meeting with state officials to discuss those concerns.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is seen as a potential Speaker if Republicans retain the House, has also been a prominent critic of what he sees as efforts to silence conservative voices online.
Google could also face a serious challenge on the regulatory front.
Trump said Google and other companies may have a “very antitrust situation,” but stopped short of saying whether he thought they should be broken up.