House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Wednesday he'd prefer not to regulate Google, but he does think antitrust laws need to be reviewed in the media search giant's case.
"I do think the application of our antitrust laws, which promotes fair competition, needs to be reviewed and I think that the fact that Google, unlike Fox News or a whole host of other news organizations that edit their content, determine who gets on their programs or what appears in the newspaper and are subject to libel laws," the Virginia Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
His comments came a day after Google CEO Sundar Pichai was questioned on Capitol Hill, including by Republicans who pressed him hard on whether the company's search algorithms rank conservative web content lower.
"It's clear that companies like Google are doing more to edit the content that appears on their platform, making them more hands-on," said Goodlatte. "If it were just here is our platform and put whatever you want on it, that would be totally free speech. If it's not free speech why do they get a free pass on protection against libel."
Pichai agreed on Tuesday that he will give Congress further information, and Goodlatte said lawmakers did not get all the answers they wanted from him.
The Google executive earlier this year angered members of a Senate panel in September when he declined their invitation to testify about foreign governments' manipulating online services to sway U.S. elections.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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