Google chief denies it manipulates search results as Senators led by Ted Cruz say that internet firms that don't remain politically neutral should have protection from lawsuits removed

  • Karan Bhatia, Google's policy chief, was grilled at the Senate hearing on Tuesday
  • Senator Ted Cruz was one of Google's most vocal critics during the long hearing 
  • He said a  law protecting the tech giants should be scrapped if they are biased 

Google's policy chief has been forced to deny the company manipulates search results under intense questioning from Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

Karan Bhatia attended the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Tuesday and was grilled by several senators on alleged political bias. 

Cruz in particular, who has long been critical of tech giants, said companies like Google who failed to remain neutral should have their legal protection taken away. 

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Republican Senator from Texas Ted Cruz arrives for testimony by Karan Bhatia on Tuesday

Republican Senator from Texas Ted Cruz arrives for testimony by Karan Bhatia on Tuesday

The Texas senator was referring to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which has been used by Google, Facebook and YouTube to legally distance themselves from user-generated content. 

Congress has previously been called to change or repeal the law over allegations the social media giants have failed to control harassment. 

In the hearing on Tuesday, several senators renewed their attacks on Section 230. 

'If Big Tech cannot provide us with evidence that it's not playing Big Brother with its immense powers, we don't need to give them a subsidy through Section 230,' Cruz said. 

Cruz's statement echoed a widely held belief among Republican lawmakers that the tech giants have shaped people's political views by altering search results and hiding conservative news sources. 

Karan Bhatia (right), a Google vice president for government affairs and public policy, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee

Karan Bhatia (right), a Google vice president for government affairs and public policy, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee

Karan Bhatia, Google's policy chief who was at the hearing, denied the claims and said it would be bad for business if users didn't trust the company to be impartial.

Bhatia also said Google had done all it could to remove offensive content on YouTube but the volume of videos being uploaded makes it difficult to police.

Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, told Bloomberg after the hearing that Section 230 was originally put in place to protect smaller tech companies in the 1990s rather than giants.

'I don't think they're developing anymore so it probably could stand to be reviewed,' she said.     

Bhatia was subjected to harsh questioning by several senators on alleged manipulation of Google's search results

Bhatia was subjected to harsh questioning by several senators on alleged manipulation of Google's search results

But Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, said the investigation could easily generate a gratuitous and unhealthy level of government control. 

'Just because a business is big doesn't mean it's bad,' Sensenbrenner said Tuesday. He argued that breaking up big companies could hurt smaller firms around the U.S. and might compound privacy problems.  

While the big tech companies appear to have few friends on Capitol Hill, there has been some pushback from Republicans against a proposal by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president, that Amazon, Facebook and Google should be forced to divest companies that they purchased previously.

'I don't think the goal of antitrust law is to break up a big company just because they're big,' said Representative Kelly Armstrong, a Republican from North Dakota, on Fox Television.

'I don't ever want to penalize any company for success.'

Google reveals it has 'terminated' Chinese search engine project

Google has terminated its controversial project to set up a search engine in China, an executive told the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. 

Google vice president of public policy Karan Bhatia revealed that 'Project Dragonfly' has been scrapped in response to a question from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley about its business with China.

The project faced public backlash as well as widespread criticism from the tech giant's own staff members, after it was revealed in The Intercept via leaked documents.  

'We have terminated Project Dragonfly,' Bhatia said of the company's efforts to expand to the Chinese market, according to Buzzfeed News

It comes after Donald Trump said earlier on Tuesday that his administration will investigate a claim from Peter Thiel that Google has been infiltrated by China. 

Google vice president of public policy Karan Bhatia (pictured) revealed that 'Project Dragonfly' has been scrapped in response to a question from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley about its business with China

Google vice president of public policy Karan Bhatia (pictured) revealed that 'Project Dragonfly' has been scrapped in response to a question from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley about its business with China 

In response for a request to comment, Google referred to statements it issued in 2019, saying: 'As we've said for many months, we have no plans to launch Search in China and there is no work being undertaken on such a project. Team members have moved to new projects.'

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration will investigate a claim from Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a major donor to his political efforts, that Google has been infiltrated by China.  

He suggested at a Cabinet meeting that his attorney general could 'maybe take a look' and said other federal agencies would also be looking into the allegation.

'Yeah, he made a very strong charge. He's one of the top, maybe the top expert, on all of those things,' the president said. 'And he made a very big statement about Google.'

Trump did not commit the Justice Department to launching a formal inquiry, but he hailed Thiel's ingenuity and noted that he's a friend and campaign contributor.

'We'll see if there's any truth to it. But that's a very big statement made by somebody who's highly respected,' he said.

Thiel, 51, made the comments during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington on Sunday.

A Facebook board member who supported Trump in 2016 and spoke at the Republican National Convention, the tech investor slammed Google for working with the Chinese military while refusing to renew a contract with the Pentagon. He suggested Google's actions were 'seemingly treasonous.' 

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration will investigate a claim from Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a major donor to his political efforts, that Google has been infiltrated by China

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration will investigate a claim from Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a major donor to his political efforts, that Google has been infiltrated by China

Google admitted last year it had been looking at options to build a specialist search engine in China, but said there were no current plans to launch it.  

However allegations from insiders at Google claimed they have discovered hundreds of code changes on the project.

This suggested that the project was still being worked on in secret.

Google employees who looked into the latest status of Project Dragonfly claimed that budgets for the project still contained 100 personnel names.

Around 500 alterations to the code used on the project were made in December 2018, followed by 400 more at the start of this year, company insiders said.

Google was forced to climb down from its plans for Dragonfly, after revelations about the project drew fierce criticism and pressure from its employees.

Any search engine that operates in China would have to comply with the country's strict censorship policies.

Google pulled out of China in 2010 due to the firm's unwillingness to submit to these restrictions.

The firm's search engine and mail services remain blocked in mainland China along with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Chinese internet users have to resort to a variety of technological tricks to try to circumvent the 'Great Firewall of China', as the restrictions have been dubbed. 

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