Google is being questioned because images of Trump appear when typing "idiot".
During a hearing with the US House Judiciary Committee, the Google CEO was asked numerous questions related to how the search engine works.
On December 11th, CEO Sundar Pichai testified on the topic of "Transparency and Accountability: Google's Data Auditing, Collection, Use, and Filtering."
Among the issues raised, representatives mentioned that in August, news reports indicated that images of U.S. President Donald Trump were being associated with the keyword "idiot" on Google. "Right now, if you type 'idiot' into Google, images of Trump still appear. I just did it. How does that happen?" Representative Zoe Lofgren questioned whether Google was interfering with search results.
|
Google image search results for the keyword "idiot". |
Pichai explained: "Whenever a user enters a keyword, Google queries billions of websites in its database and externally, then uses that keyword to compare. Our ranking is based on 200 criteria, such as relevance, novelty, popularity, how others use it, etc., ultimately providing the most relevant results," Pichai said. "This process is entirely algorithmic, and we don't manually manipulate any specific search results."
|
Mr. Pichai at the hearing. Photo:CNet |
Previously, Google was alleged to have tampered with its search algorithm to boost the ranking of portraits of the US president to the top, in order to protest Trump's policies on issues related to undocumented immigrants and the LGBT community.
Also at the hearing, Pichai encountered another humorous situation, such as his company being mistaken for the manufacturer of the iPhone. "I have a 7-year-old niece who was playing a game on her iPhone. Then, a picture of her grandfather—that's me—appeared on the screen. I want to ask, how did that picture end up on a child's iPhone?" questioned Steve King, a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Pichai responded that iPhones are made by a different company. King then tried to salvage the situation by saying that "the phone's brand name doesn't matter."VergeIt's possible this congressman is referring to the issue of incorrect notifications, but isn't making his point clear.
In addition, the Google CEO was also questioned regarding internet monopolies, the Google+ social network, user location tracking, and plans to build a separate search engine for China... However, most of the questions did not pose a challenge to the head of Google.
