If Forced, House Commerce Chairman Walden Will Subpoena Google, He Says

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden will subpoena Google if necessary to get a top executive to testify, the Oregon Republican told us Thursday. A day earlier, the platform was criticized for its absence at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing (see 1809050057). “Someday, we will have the Google execs in just like we had [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg, just like we had [Twitter CEO Jack] Dorsey," Walden said. "We’re just going to continue to march right through, and obviously we have tools to get there if we have to use them. We shouldn’t have to use them.”

Leadership reportedly considered subpoenaing Twitter before Dorsey agreed to testify before the House Commerce Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee (see 1808240054). That was after Walden sent a letter to Silicon Valley tech executives asking for testimony and a continuation of the dialogue started by Zuckerberg in April (see 1805160047).

Google executives “sure have” been the most difficult to get to Capitol Hill, Walden told us. “It’s not everybody’s favorite thing to testify before Congress. But when you’re this big of a player on the world stage, you need to come talk to the elected representatives because we have a responsibility to our constituents, and in order to legislate.” Google didn’t comment.

Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., told reporters Thursday he and his colleagues are not “giving up any of our tools” to get Google leadership on the Hill. “The challenge with [a subpoena] is there are a host of other social media companies, so we’re not going to have the whole universe -- we want to try to do this voluntarily,” he said. Warner likes and respects Google, but, “What signal, what arrogance does it send [when] they don’t want to be involved in this discussion?”

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday slammed Google’s decision not to send a top executive for Wednesday, calling it “a strategic mistake of virtually incalculable proportions for both themselves as well as the Silicon Valley companies they have come to represent.” Google is the “alpha dog of the internet,” as the platform accounts for 60 percent of U.S.-originated search queries, he said.

Walden credited Dorsey for admitting mistakes and trying to correct them, in response to GOP claims Twitter is biased against conservatives. Democrats dismissed those complaints as unfounded. “If you go back and really analyze his testimony, he was pretty clearly saying they have a broken process that needs repair,” Walden said. “He called it ‘a reboot.’ In almost every example brought to light, he said, ‘Yeah, that’s a problem. We’ve got to go back, or we’re testing. We figured out we made a mistake.’” There were no examples from Democrats of left-leaning content being taken down, he said. “These platforms are so powerful and so important in our lives. When people see this happen, they wonder who’s writing the algorithms and is bias getting entered into the algorithms. They’ve got to prove it’s not, and that’s what our job is to do the oversight.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Thursday referenced President Donald Trump’s recent claim that Google Search is biased against conservatives (see 1808310037). “When Trump, who has tens of millions of Twitter followers, is arguing that there’s a social media bias … I think his views are well-expressed, and are not discriminated against,” he told us.

Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Calif., a Commerce Committee member, wasn’t entirely satisfied with Dorsey’s response. The executive suggested that if there is platform bias, or appearance of it, it's unintentional. He told lawmakers in both chambers it would be economically harmful to favor one party. “Twitter leaders need to really look at exactly how they’re creating these algorithms, and it is very obvious to me that they have been biased, and what they need to do is drill down and change it,” Walters told us: Dorsey "said he’s going to, but proof will be in the pudding.”

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told us the topic of conservative bias remains on his committee’s radar. But he didn’t listen to Dorsey’s testimony. Goodlatte previously hosted two hearings on the topic (see 1804260055 and 1807170043).

Alex Jones and his InfoWars account were permanently suspended from Twitter Thursday, the company tweeted. “We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations.” Jones was in and out of the social media hearings as an observer Wednesday and mostly unsuccessfully tried to confront Dorsey and lawmakers. Twitter will look to increase transparency concerning takedowns and suspensions, the platform said, and will continue evaluating reports about other accounts potentially linked to Jones and InfoWars. Jones didn't comment.

Silicon Valley executives should convene and “fix the undeniable viewpoint suppression problem themselves," said National Religious Broadcasters CEO Jerry Johnson. Congress will intervene if not, he said. Free State Foundation President Randolph May's email blast subject was: "Trump, DOJ, Congress Want to Regulate Google's Search -- I Say No." Still, he worries the company's leftist bias suppresses "conservative voices," he wrote in The Washington Times.