A group of Big Tech critics is using the China card to drum up interest on the Hill for taking a tougher stance on Google. It’s also urging lawmakers to dismiss the search engine giant’s warnings that breaking it up could be bad for U.S. national security.
In a letter to Hill offices this week, The Tech Oversight Project said Congress wasn’t being nearly hard enough on Google even as antitrust enforcers are in court trying to break up the company. The group has worked on several campaigns to rein in major digital firms.
While The Tech Oversight project lists several benefits to the economy that would result from breaking up Google, it cites alleged business ties with the Chinese Communist Party as a reason to heavily scrutinize the company.
“Though Google does not offer its search engine or app store in China, it still maintains an advertising business aimed at providing CCP-connected companies [with] sensitive data on people around the world,” according to a letter obtained by Punchbowl News.
Google is having none of the group’s allegations, which it harshly criticized.
“This is a blatant misrepresentation,” Google spokesperson Julie McAlister said of the letter. McAlister said Google doesn’t sell users’ data or “share data about individual Americans in bid requests to Chinese companies.”
“Our core products – Google Search, Play, Workspace, YouTube and others – are not available in China,” she added.
The Tech Oversight Project also urged lawmakers to raise questions about Google’s compliance with laws on international data brokers and to seek information on any potential sharing of technology with China. In addition, the group suggested advancing a bill to break up the company’s digital ads business.
