It’s Google’s turn to get thrashed by the GOP
As Meta and X bow to Trump, top Republicans in Congress have their sights on Google next.
Things are about to get uncomfortable in Washington for Google.
Top Republicans in Congress are leaning hard on the tech giant to make its content policies friendlier to the GOP, after winning that fight with social media companies Meta and X.
Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz of Texas and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio are now putting pressure on Google and its parent company Alphabet, which owns both the internet’s dominant search engine and the popular YouTube video platform.
Jordan sent a subpoena last month to Alphabet, seeking its internal discussions and communications with the Biden administration about content moderation. Cruz said Google is “absolutely” his primary target among the tech platforms, promising hearings and possibly even legislation, although he did not specify what kind of laws he might draft.
Cruz sat down last month for a one-on-one meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai to deliver a warning: Change Google’s content policies or face his wrath.
In the hourlong meeting, which has not previously been reported, Cruz said he “explicitly and unambiguously” told Pichai his committee would press Google on what he called the company’s ongoing efforts to throttle conservative content.
“Big Tech censorship was the single most important topic,” Cruz told POLITICO. He said he pushed Pichai on “policies that should be implemented” and claimed the Google CEO “understands fully where I’m coming from and what we expect in terms of protecting free speech.”
A Google spokesperson declined to comment on Cruz’s description of the meeting with Pichai.
Republicans have long argued that Big Tech platforms are biased against them, complaining they suppressed coverage of stories like Hunter Biden’s laptop and suspended President Donald Trump from social media after the Jan. 6 riot. But they’ve historically channeled much of that anger toward Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — and the site formerly known as Twitter.
That is now changing. With Meta and X bending over backward to appease Republicans — and with TikTok, another platform that’s attracted congressional ire, now seemingly on Trump’s good side — the knives are out for Google.
Cruz and Jordan, in particular, are in the early stages of a pressure campaign meant to shift Google’s content policies to align with changes being made by its corporate rivals — particularly Meta’s recent moves to end fact-checking and stop “censoring” content that could contain disinformation.
A Cruz spokesperson did not respond when asked about specific policy shifts the senator is pushing Google to make.
In a statement, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said Google is committed to free speech, and is “not a social media company” like Meta and X. Unlike those companies, he said, Google “never used fact checking as a factor in our ranking algorithms, or to downrank or demote content.”
Cruz and Jordan both frame their budding anti-Google campaign as an effort to secure “free speech” and protect against “censorship.”
Google, unlike its leading rivals, has yet to reverse or significantly weaken policies limiting disinformation or objectionable speech in the wake of Trump’s election.
Google’s content and ad policies have periodically drawn the ire of Cruz, Jordan and other conservative lawmakers. But its last major concession to the GOP came in June 2023, when YouTube, the Google-owned video site, reversed a ban on videos falsely claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
YouTube has more than 250 million monthly active users in the U.S. — significantly more than TikTok. Between that and the overwhelming dominance of its search engine, conservatives say, Google’s content policies massively influence how Americans view politics.
“Stopping online censorship is a major priority for the Commerce Committee,” Cruz said in response to a question about his plans for Google. “And we are going to utilize every point of leverage we have to protect free speech online.”
Congressional pressure is by now a familiar problem for Silicon Valley. Adam Kovacevich, head of tech lobbying group Chamber of Progress and a former Google lobbyist, called the escalating anti-Google campaign “the latest chapter in a long saga” of Washington “working the refs on content moderation.”
While Pichai has also tried to curry favor with the White House, appearing beside other CEOs in the Capitol Rotunda at Trump’s inauguration, to which Google gave $1 million, he hasn’t made the kind of sweeping, Trump-friendly policy changes announced by Meta or X.
Jordan said in an interview he wants YouTube to offer changes like those Republicans have seen from Meta and X.
Among other things, those companies have closed down their fact-checking programs and lifted prior restrictions on content seen as favorable to conservatives. When asked to be more specific, Jordan said Google should “let the First Amendment be the First Amendment.”
Some observers say the GOP lawmakers simply want another Big Tech giant to bend the knee to Republicans, and are less interested in detailed policy shifts.
“They’re most likely trying to force voluntary concessions from Google, such as recommendation algorithms that favor conservative influencers or ad policies that allow climate denialism,” said Nu Wexler, a consultant and former communications staffer for top tech companies, including Google.
“They’re most likely trying to force voluntary concessions from Google.”
