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Senate committee votes to subpoena Facebook, Google and Twitter CEOs
They're set to grill Zuckerberg, Pichai and Dorsey over Section 230 protections.
Google reveals plans to build 20,000 Bay Area homes
Google says it'll invest in thousands of new homes in the Bay Area over the next decade, in the hopes of helping many of its employees and other residents find an affordable place to live in one of the planet's most expensive regions. CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post that Google plans to repurpose at least $750 million worth of land it owns for residential housing. Through this, the company hopes to "support the development of at least 15,000 new homes at all income levels in the Bay Area, including housing options for middle and low-income families."
Calling Google biased won't alter the truth
We all know how these things play out: A tech CEO is sworn in and then is railed at for a couple hours. Some of the representatives will rage against what they see as unfairness, some will scream bias and others will print out pages from conspiracy theory websites. If we're lucky, we'll get a question about something that's pertinent, although it's rarely followed up on.
Congress grills Google CEO over Chinese search engine plans
If you were hoping that Google chief Sundar Pichai would shed more light on his company's potential censored search engine for China... well, you'll mostly be disappointed. Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline grilled Pichai on the recently acknowledged Dragonfly project and mostly encountered attempts to downplay the significance of the engine. The Google exec stressed there were "no plans" to launch a search engine for China, and that Dragonfly was an "internal effort" and "limited" in scope.
Google CEO will now testify before Congress December 11th
Google CEO Sundar Pichai was scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, but that's no longer the case following the death of George H. W. Bush. The former president's funeral will take place that day and, as such, Pichai's hearing has been rearranged for December 11th at 10 AM ET.
White House to host innovation talk with tech CEOs
The White House is set to host a roundtable discussion next week that will include a number of tech CEOs, the Wall Street Journal reports. A White House email says those attending will discuss "bold, transformational ideas" that "can help ensure US leadership in industries of the future," and they'll do so December 6th. Among those reportedly participating are Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf, Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman and Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify in Congress on December 5th
Republican politicians, most notably US President Donald Trump, have strongly criticized Google for bias against conservatives. "There's a lot of interest in their algorithm, how those algorithms work, how those algorithms are supervised," said outgoing committee member Bob Goodlatte in September. To counter that, CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to appear on December 5th before the House Judiciary Committee to dispel any idea of bias in its all-powerful search algorithms, according to the Washington Post.
Google employees plan walkout over censored Chinese search engine
Just weeks after Google employees walked out of offices to protest the way the company dealt with claims of sexual misconduct, Google is bracing itself for another worldwide protest. This time, it's over Google's ominous Project Dragonfly, and human rights organization Amnesty International is throwing its whole weight behind it.
Google updates sexual harassment policies following protest
Google has faced quite a bit of criticism and pushback regarding how it has handled sexual harassment accusations in the past, and thousands of employees walked out of their offices in protest last week. Now, ahead of a company town hall meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has released new policies that will guide how the company handles such accusations going forward. "Over the past few weeks Google's leaders and I have heard your feedback and have been moved by the stories you've shared," Pichai wrote. "We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It's clear we need to make some changes."
Google Walkout protest included 20,000 participants Friday
According to its organizers, a protest put together over the last week pulled together 20,000 workers in 50 Google offices around the world who walked out at 11:10 AM local time yesterday. While the response came to a boil after the New York Times wrote about misconduct and payouts among high-ranking execs, as several participants outlined in an essay published by The Cut, the issues run far deeper than that.
Google has fired nearly 50 employees for sexual misconduct since 2016
On the heels of Thursday morning's news claiming that Andy "Father of Android" Rubin forced one of his subordinates to perform a sex act and also received a $90 million golden parachute when the company found out about the sexual assault accusations, Google CEO Sundar Pichai admits that sexual harassment at the company goes beyond this one incident.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirms censored China search engine
When Google's chief privacy officer admitted to the Senate that the company is working on a secret project called 'Dragonfly,' he refused to say what it is. According to previous reports, Dragonfly is the codename for the censored search engine Google has been developing for China since 2017 -- a search engine that can automatically identify websites banned by the country's infamous firewall and can remove them from the results page. Now, Google chief Sundar Pichai has openly confirmed the search engine's existence at the Wired 25 Summit and even told the audience that its development is going very well.
Google’s CEO will testify before Congress about bias and China
Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in November, following the midterm elections. He met with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other senior Republicans Friday to discuss accusations that Google is biased against conservatives (a charge the company has denied). McCarthy told Reuters that Pichai had agreed to appear before the committee.
Congress wants to know if Google plans to relaunch search in China
A cross-party group of congresspeople have asked Google if it plans to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, as has been rumored. In their letter to Google, the 16 Democrats and Republicans wrote they had "serious concerns" over the possible move, according to Reuters. A group of senators, including Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden, previously sought answers from Google over its reported return to China.
Are Facebook and Twitter scared enough to work together?
The last time a bunch of social media execs testified before congress the hearings ended with US House Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) calling it a "dumb" and "stupid" sideshow. He said there were more important matters for Congress to be discussing the "content-filtering practices" of internet companies, and that Facebook, Twitter and Google can't have user posts be regulated because of the First Amendment anyway. Still, members of the Senate and House are keen on finding ways for Silicon Valley giants to keep their services safe, particularly from foreign interference and other bad actors trying to create discord among Americans. But rather than get into a battle with Congress over potential federal regulation, which would likely cause some controversy, Facebook and Twitter seem willing to work together on solutions for these issues in order to avoid that path.
Hey Google, Android actually does stifle competition
Sundar Pichai knows that the choice of mobile OS nowadays boils down to Android or iOS. He published a blog post yesterday in response to the European Commission's competition decision against Android, which opens saying, "If you buy an Android phone, you're choosing one of the world's two most popular mobile platforms." That's not very many options, but it's also not Google's fault.
US lawmakers urge Google to reconsider Huawei partnership
In the wake of national security concerns over Huawei's interest in entering the US market, legislators from both the Senate and the House sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai urging him to reconsider working with the Chinese phone maker, who made Google's Nexus 6P.
Can Google keep its promises on building ethical AI?
Google's collaboration with the Department of Defense to develop AI system's for the US military's fleet of war drones, dubbed Project Maven, proved a double-edged sword for the technology company. On one hand, the DoD contract was quite lucrative, worth as much as $250 million annually.
Lawmakers want more tech companies to address privacy legislation
Though Facebook has been in a bright spotlight since the Cambridge Analytica fallout, it's obviously not the only company that has to deal with issues surrounding how best to protect its users' privacy. That responsibility falls on all tech companies with online platforms and Congress is now calling on them to step up and do their part. In interviews with CNET, two congressmen express the need for Silicon Valley cooperation and urge executives to accept that this is an issue that isn't going away.
Zuckerberg will reportedly appear before Congress on data privacy
Yesterday, Congress requested Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about data privacy -- a request that was also extended to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Now, CNN says Facebook sources have said Zuckerberg will agree to appear before Congress. Zuckerberg was also asked to appear before the UK's Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee, but he has declined to attend that hearing.
