Sundar Pichai Defended Google On 'Stealing Content' From Other Websites

Yesterday was a big day for tech as four CEOs of the largest tech companies in the US -- Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google --faced the US Judicial Committee, discussing allegations of anti-competitive and unfair business practices of these four large technology companies.?

Reuters

In the start of the session, when Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was busy getting himself a snack, Sundar Pichai was getting grilled by Representative David Cicilline on how Google’s search is being used to monitor not just its users but also competitors.?

Cicilline stated, accusing Google of anti-competitive behaviour, “It is Google’s business model that is the problem. Our documents show that Google evolved from a turnstile to the rest of the web to a walled garden that increasingly keeps users within its sites.”

In one of his allegations, Cicilline asked, "Why does Google steal content from honest businesses?" talking about suggestions on Yelp and it has complained that it has been stealing reviews from its site and displaying on its search results. When asked to remove the reviews, Google threatened to delist the site. “Isn’t that anti-competitive?” Cicilline asked Pichai.

To this, Pichai disagreed with the characterization of stealing content, stating, "When I run the company, I’m really focused on giving users what they want. We conduct ourselves to the highest standards," while seeking specifics on this accusation stated by the representative.

Reuters

In another accusation, Cicilline asked how Google is known to show the most relevant results, but instead of actually showing something truly relevant, Google prioritises on content that’s profitable for the company. To this, Pichai just said, "We have always focused on providing users with the most relevant information.

In his closing remarks, Cicilline simply said, "The evidence seems very clear to me. As Google became the gateway to the internet, it began to abuse its power and use its surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats and crush them. It has dampened innovation and new business growth and has dramatically increased the price of accessing users on the internet, virtually ensuring any business that wants to be found on the web must pay Google a tax.”