Top Five Most Ridiculous Moments From Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Congressional Hearing

Aidan McLaughlinDec 11th, 2018, 6:55 pm
 

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing Tuesday. As Wired wrote, lawmakers had to opportunity to question one of the most powerful people in the world, and they blew it, focusing most of the hearing on the useless question of whether Google’s search algorithm has an anti-conservative bias.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, complained that when they Google themselves, articles from the Daily Caller show up.

While the hearing overall was a perfect display of lawmakers’ dearth of knowledge, it also provided some utterly ridiculous comments from crotchety congressmen struggling to understand how technology works. Here are the dumbest moments.

1. Pichai informs Rep. Steve King that Google and Apple are different companies

Here’s a transcript of the mind-boggling exchange:

King: I have a 7-year-old granddaughter who picked up her phone before the election, and she’s playing a little game, the kind of game a kid would play. And up on there pops a picture of her grandfather. And I’m not going to say into the record what kind of language was used around that picture of her grandfather, but I’d ask you: how does that show up on a 7-year-old’s iPhone, who’s playing a kid’s game?

Pichai: Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company.

2. King proposes a Google employee witch hunt

Yes, Steve King made this list twice. Not only is he one of the more obscene members of Congress, he might also be one of the dimmest. He asked Pichai for a list of Google employees working on the search algorithm so he “look at their social media” to determine if they’re biased against conservatives. Witch hunt!

3. Rep. Lamar Smith frets that nefarious liberals at Google are manipulating the company’s algorithm

Lamar Smith used his time to question Pichai on alleged political bias in the algorithm. At one point, he asked if Google had ever sanctioned an employee for “manipulating” the search algorithm.

“It’s not possible for an individual employee, or groups of employees, to manipulate our search results,” Pichai replied.

Smith disagreed.

4. Rep. Steve Cohen boasts to Pichai: “I use your apparatus often.”

Cohen suggested Pichai make an online school to help people understand the search engine. Cohen also complained that when you call Comcast you “get somebody you can’t understand.” The Tennessee lawmaker later lamented that when he searches for his MSNBC hits on Google, articles from the Daily Caller and Breitbart show up. Both sides!

5. Alex Jones shows up with Roger Stone

If you wanted any more evidence this hearing was a complete spectacle devoid of any substance, take a look at the audience. Monopoly man made an appearance, alongside the thirstiest conspiracy theorist on the internet, Alex Jones. His plus one was Roger Stone, a target of the Mueller probe and the Daily Caller’s fashion editor. When Jones wasn’t sitting in the hearing he was bumbling through the halls of Congress shouting “Google is evil!”

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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Aidan McLaughlin - Editor in Chief

Aidan McLaughlin is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Send tips via email: aidan@mediaite.com. Ask for Signal. Follow him on Twitter: @aidnmclaughlin