Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to the Hill today to testify in front of the sexagenarians and septuagenarians at the House Judiciary Committee. While some Republicans focused on whether Google has discriminated against conservatives in search results and overstepped their mandate as a platform on YouTube, Pichai finally let the mask slip on the far more pertinent issue: Google’s complicity in assisting the Chinese dictatorship.
Under oath, Pichai deliberately obfuscated when asked about Google’s work on Chinese products. He initially said that there are “no plans” to launch a search engine or associated product in China. This was a bizarrely obvious falsehood, given both (a) extensive reporting on Google’s development of Project Dragonfly, a product specifically engineered to allow China to censor its own citizens, and (b) Pichai’s subsequent responses after more intensive lines of questioning.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., asked Pichai whether there are any current discussions with the Chinese government about the recently unearthed Project Dragonfly.
“The effort is currently an internal effort,” Pichai responded. “I’m happy to let you know, consult, be transparent as we take steps toward launching a product in China.”
Notice how Pichai both refused to deny Google has been in contact with the Chinese government, and also admitted that there are in fact “steps” toward launching Project Dragonfly.
Cicilline then asked if Pichai would “rule out launching a tool for surveillance and censorship in China.”
“One of the things that’s important to us as a company, we have a stated mission of providing users with information, and so we always think it’s in our duty to explore possibilities to give users access to information,” Pichai responded. “I have a commitment, but as I’ve said earlier on this, we’ll be very thoughtful and we’ll engage widely as we make progress.”
Throw in the reports that Google specifically instructed employees to get the project in “launch-ready state” to send to Beijing for approval, and it’s impossible to believe Google isn’t in bed with the People’s Republic of China.
The Chinese government has currently detained nearly 1 million Muslims in concentration camps, tortures and harvests the organs of political and religious prisoners, forces various religious minorities to undergo biometrics collections, and, of course, represses all forms of political dissent and free speech. China’s is an oppressive regime, an evil empire that is overdue for a revolution. For Google to assist the government in the censorship of its own people is not just unethical; it’s moral complicity of the highest order in the continued oppression of 1.4 billion people.
Sundar Pichai isn’t telling truth. If his House testimony proved anything today, it’s that he is continuing Google’s march into the gates of hell and into the arms of the Chinese government.
