Saima Ikram
Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced some difficult questions at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. Rep. Steve King proved to be the most intricate inquirer coming up with some hard-to-answer questions.
King mentioned personal experience where his 7-year-old granddaughter playing a game on her phone saw a picture of the congressman with some inappropriate language. This happened some time before King’s November 2018 reelection bid.
“I’m not going to say into the record what kind of language was used around that picture of her grandfather,” he said.
King showed Pichai his Apple device, asking, “How does that show up on a 7-year-old’s iPhone who’s playing a kids game?”
To that Pichai had somehow an amusing response saying;
“Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company.”
Rep. Steve King: “How does that show up on a 7-year old’s iPhone who’s playing a kid’s game?”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai: “”Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company…”
Watch full hearing here: https://t.co/w6Qhg7xb5b pic.twitter.com/4lT8Daj5yn
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 11, 2018
Pichai’s response created a laughter at the Democratic staff table, noted by Joe Perticone, Business Insider’s analyst present during Tuesday’s hearing.
Backing down from his point, King said, “It might have been an Android. It’s just … it was a hand-me-down of some kind.”
Also See: Google’s CEO Explains – Why Googling “Idiot” Shows Photos Of Donald Trump
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) had rather a different approach on the matter and he advised the Iowa congressman to “do positive things, for positive search results.” This was not the first time that King had to be embarrassed due to his racial misconduct.
The iPhone holding thing was not just done by King alone during Tuesday’s address of Google’s CEO.
Rep. Ted Poe of Texas also asked Pichai whether Google tracked users’ phones for location data, showing his Apple device. Rep. Tom Marino of Pennsylvania also made Pichai to feel his responsibility, holding his phone and saying because “there’s a lot of people who believe anything that’s put out, by anyone.”
