Kevin McCarthy: 'It's Time for Google to Answer Some Questions'

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stated in a recent tweet that tech firm Google must answer some questions and that an “invite will be on its way.”

In a recent tweet, GOP House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy stated that tech giant Google will have to answer a number of questions about its operations before Congress as Facebook and Twitter did recently. In the tweet, McCarthy noted left-leaning bias from Google who gave a “silent donation” to a left-wing anti-Trump group and Google’s work with China and Russia to censor the Internet in certain parts of the world.

McCarthy has previously called out Google for left-leaning bias and how hard it is to combat misinformation online. In an interview with MSNBC, discussing an error which saw “Nazism” listed as the official political ideology of the California Republican Party, McCarthy stated:

Well, this was disgusting. So, if anybody went and searched it through Google, which is the biggest search engine, 90% of everything on the Internet that’s searched goes through Google, the ideology didn’t say the party of Lincoln or the party of Reagan. It said our ideology was Nazism. They said they pulled that from Wikipedia.

The tough part is, I was — talked about this beforehand, and I looked at Wikipedia, and it didn’t say Nazism on there. So, this is a real concern that the bias has to stop. Because if you just went a couple of days before to Instagram, and you searched Donald Trump, Jr., it gave you a warning that this site could be harmful and could actually cause death. So, that was a real concern of what’s going on.

And then what happened at Amazon, kicking out the Alliance [Defending] Freedom, that you couldn’t give the charity money through there anymore, even though these people defend religious freedom before the Supreme Court, and that Amazon Smile, those customers can’t pick that charity anymore to give money to.

Google faced criticism for their failure to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee or the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently alongside Facebook and Twitter. In an article titled “Google’s Empty Chair Ratchets Up Pressure From Congress,” Bloomberg notes that Google’s refusal to appear before Congress could cause problems for the tech company in the future.

While Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twiter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared before the Committee yesterday to discuss the issues their platforms face in terms of election interference, Google’s absence from the hearing was notable and commented on during the event. Adam Goldberg, a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based communications firm Trident DMG, commented on Google’s absence stating: “After investing so much in lobbying the last several years, this is bizarre. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu, and Congress looks hungry.”

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), commented on Google’s absence at the time stating: “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,” he said. “Given its size and influence, I would have thought the leadership at Google would want to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges and to lead this important public discussion.”