Google CEO Sundar Pichai will face a legislature next week

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday, December 5th. The hearing will provide members of the House Judiciary Committee with a long-awaited opportunity to present to Pichai a wide range of issues, from privacy to freedom of expression in China.

Google angered some congressmen in September when the company refused to send one of its top executives – Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page – to testify before an election security hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg, director of Facebook's operation, as well as an empty chair labeled "Google".

According to Washington PostNext week's hearing is at the request of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who feared that Google would be biased against the Conservatives – and that this bias could infiltrate the rules of the search engine. Google, YouTube and other products. A recently leaked video showed that Google executives openly mourned the loss of Hillary Clinton after the 2016 election.

"Technology at the base of online services, such as social media and Internet search engines, can also be used to suppress particular viewpoints and manipulate public opinion," said the representative of Judicial Commission, Bob Goodlatte, in a press release. l & # 39; hearing.

But there are many other controversial topics that members of Congress might want to ask about Pichai.

Google has recently been criticized by its employees for rumors that Google is working on a censored search engine for the Chinese market. The reports also raised concerns for members of Congress, including McCarthy.

"Reports claim that the company would compromise its fundamental principles by complying with repressive censorship mandates from China," McCarthy said in a statement.

Google has also been criticized by employees for its work on military drones. Google plans to end this work in 2019. Here, Congressional pressure may push in the opposite direction to that of its employees who were protesting, members of Congress encouraging Google to apply its technical prowess to strengthen the military US.

Google faces charges of anti-competitive behavior

Last year, European regulators fined Google $ 2.7 billion for abusing its dominant position in the research market and fined $ 5 billion for using the Android's dominance in the smartphone market to strengthen its position in the research sector. Google critics such as Yelp have urged US regulators to take a closer look at these issues.

Traditionally, strict enforcement of antitrust laws has been more badociated with Democrats than Republicans. But there have been signs of growing interest in the topic within the GOP.

In an interview with Axios earlier this month, Donald Trump said his administration "is reviewing" tougher application of antitrust laws against Google, Amazon and Facebook. Missouri has just elected a new Republican Senator, Josh Hawley, who has campaigned as a fierce critic of Google's business practices.

Thus, Pichai could face tough questions on both sides of the aisle – skeptical democrats against big business in general, as well as Republicans concerned about the growing power of Silicon Valley technology companies.