Google's Empty Chair Gets Starring Role at Hearing

By Douglas MacMillan 

Alphabet Inc. played the role of punching bag at Wednesday's Congressional hearing, even if none of the search giant's executives were on hand to absorb the blows.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, declined to send Chief Executive Larry Page to appear at the hearing, where U.S. senators grilled Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey about issues including Russian meddling, online privacy and political bias on tech platforms.

Mr. Page's absence at times threatened to overshadow the remarks of the other executives and drew the ire of some lawmakers.

In noting the empty chair with a placard bearing Google's name, senators chided the internet company for failing to publicly address key issues around the use of online platforms. The public beating could expose Google to even further scrutiny by policy makers in Washington, several of whom have recently proposed measures to regulate the search giant, including privacy protections and a potential antitrust review.

"Given its size and influence, I would have thought that leadership at Google would have wanted to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges and to actually take a leadership role in this important discussion," Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) said in his remarks. "Unfortunately, they didn't choose to make that decision."

Google had offered to send Kent Walker, its top lawyer, to appear at the hearing, but last month Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.), who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee on election interference, said he had rejected that offer, apparently in an effort to force a more senior executive to appear.

In a written testimony Google submitted on Sept. 5, Mr. Walker said the company has worked to prevent any attempts to undermine democratic elections.

Google became a popular target for Washington politicians this summer, from Mr. Warner and Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), who has asked Google to explain why it's developing a censored search engine for China, to President Trump, who last week tweeted his concerns that its search results are biased against conservative viewpoints.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission last week, GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch called for the agency to investigate Google for possible antitrust behavior that he called "disquieting."

Write to Douglas MacMillan at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 05, 2018 15:48 ET (19:48 GMT)

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