Conservatives to Google: Explain your censorship!

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies in a House hearing Dec. 11, 2018 (video screenshot)

A coalition of conservative leaders, including Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America, Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots Action and Floyd Brown of The Western Journal, has written to the CEO of Google demanding that he explain the company's censorship of conservatives.

Last week, a former Google insider delivered evidence of such bias to the Justice Department. Zachary Vorhies told investigative reporter Sara Carter the 950 pages of documents show Google has been manipulating its algorithms. Project Veritas released a video interview with Vorhies in which explained he has come forward because he "saw something dark and nefarious going on with the company and I realized that they were going to not only tamper with the elections, but use that tampering with the elections to essentially overthrow the United States."

But last December, in a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified that the search engine was not biased against conservatives.

Now the coalition is asking Pichai for an explanation, the Gateway Pundit reported.

"We are writing today to ask that you provide a detailed response to the August 14 document release by Project Veritas which appears to show that Google blocked conservative websites on one of your news platforms," the letter begins.

After all, "you unequivocally denied it" last year before Congress.

"In March, a study by Robert Epstein identified pro-liberal bias in Google search results that helped flip three Orange County, CA, congressional districts in the 2018 midterm elections. Nationwide, Epstein found the results may have influenced 4.6 million undecided voters," the letter says.

"In April, the Daily Caller reported that Google’s Trust and Safety team manually manipulated various search features to exclude a number of conservative websites including the American Spectator, Gateway Pundit and Conservative Tribune."

Then came a video leak of a Google manager claiming the company was developing algorithms "to prevent the 2016 election outcome from happening again."

The letter says: "Now we have learned that a Google app was blocking conservative websites including The Daily Caller, NewsBusters, Rush Limbaugh, and many more. And the August 14 document leak also explained how the 'Twiddler' system lets Google/YouTube workers rank search results based upon what your companies want emphasized or de-emphasized. Manipulated topics included pro-life advocacy along with several political and conservative organizations, like The Heritage Foundation."

The letter points out that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., tried to get answers during a July Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, but a Google representative dodged those questions.

"In addition to providing an explanation for the past incidents that have already been brought to light, we demand to know what policies, programs, algorithms or any other business practices are, or have been in place to censor conservative content, and we call on you to disclose them and eliminate them immediately. If there are none currently in place, then we want your public commitment there will be none in the future. Further, we want to know what steps Google is taking to ensure it will not happen again," the letter says.

Other signers included L. Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, Morton Blackwell of Weyrich Lunch, Byron Schlommach of 1889 Institute, Brigitte Gabriel of ACT for America, Tim Wildmon of American Family Association, Jon Schweppe of American Principles Project, Mark Fitzgibbons of American Target Advertising, Gary Bauer of American Values, John Hinderaker of Center of the American Experiment, David Bossie of Citizens United, Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, James O'Keefe of Project Veritas and David Kupelian, vice president and managing editor of WND.

Copies of the letter were sent to Sens. Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Joshua Hawley, and some members of the U.S. House.

Last week, Just days ago, the the chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said a breakup of the tech giants could be the right remedy.

Chairman Joe Simons told Bloomberg he is leading a broad review of the technology sector to see whether companies, including Google and Facebook, are harming competition.

"If you have to, you do it," Simons said, according to Reuters. "It's not ideal because it's very messy. But if you have to you have to."

Reuters noted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, has vowed to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook if elected to promote competition.

The censorship and privacy violations of Google and its tech counterparts have been documented by current employees as well as internal documents and recordings.

This month, CNBC reported a newly obtained internal email discussion showed Google employees were concerned about the tech giant's threat to free speech and its moderation of content three years before the issue entered political discourse.

As WND reported Google software engineer Greg Coppola was placed on administrative leave hours after he accused the company of political bias in an interview with Project Veritas.

In 2017, Google fired engineer James Damore for circulating an internal memo titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber." And engineer Mike Wacker was fired earlier this year after speaking out about the company’s "outrage mobs."