-Are you familiar with the report that was released yesterday from Veritas that included a whistle-blower from within Google that included videos from a senior executive at Google, that included documents that are purportedly internal PowerPoint documents from Google? -Yes, I heard about that reporting industry news.
-Have you seen the report? -No, We have not.
-So, you didn’t review the report to prepare for this hearing? -It’s been a busy day, and I have a day job, which is digital well-being Google.
So, we are trying to make sure I keep the trains on the tracks.
-Well, we are sorry this hearing is impinging on your day job.
-It’s a great opportunity, thank you.
-So, a different individual, a whistle-blower identified simply as an insider at Google with knowledge of the algorithm, is quoted on the same report as saying Google “is bent on never letting somebody like Donald Trump come to power again.
” You think it’s Google’s job to make sure “somebody like Donald Trump never comes to power again”? -No, sir, we don’t think that is Google’s job, and we build for everyone, including every single religious belief, every single demographic, every single region, and, certainly, every political affiliation.
-Well, we have to say that certainly does not appear to be the case.
So, a final question.
One of these documents that were leaked explains what Google is doing, and it has a series of steps.
“Training data are collected and classified.
Algorithms are programmed.
Media are filtered, ranked,aggregated, and guaranteed.
” And that ends with “People(like us) are programmed.
” Does Google view its job as programming people with search results? -Thank you, Senator.
We can’t speak for the whole entire company but we can tell you that we make sure that we put our users first in our design.
-Well, I think these questions raise very serious — these documents raise very serious questions about political bias at the company.