Sundar Pichai's appearance before Congress was another in a long line of pointless hearings, where lawmakers display limited knowledge and execs are evasive
everybody's happy, even if little is accomplished.” http://www.buzzfeed.com/... Rakesh Agrawal / @rakeshlobster : Lawmakers are playing to the cameras and their constituents. This ends the same way it always does: lobbyists writing industry-friendly legislation. http://twitter.com/... Phillip Atiba Goff / @drphilgoff : Important question and thoughtful piece on DC's inability to understand (and therefore, to regulate) big tech. The Big Question After Silicon Valley's Tech Hearings: What's The Point? https://www.buzzfeed.com/... Nina Jankowicz / @wiczipedia : To some degree, Congressional hearings are always about political grandstanding. But I have to agree with @cwarzel that it prevents elected officials from getting answers for their constituents about tech's impact on their lives, to democracy's detriment. https://www.buzzfeed.com/... Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel : And I mean this earnestly. I really don't know (in the aggregate) what the point was. Which is not to say there weren't a couple moments of value along the way...but mostly...uh... https://www.buzzfeed.com/... Casey Johnston / @caseyjohnston : this is key pic.twitter.com/PCHzGmY9at Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel : New from me: Google's CEO's hearing marks the last of 2018's parade of Silicon Valley execs before congress. Taken together, I am not entirely sure what was accomplished. https://www.buzzfeed.com/... pic.twitter.com/2kI7BZYTey Anne Helen Petersen / @annehelen : .@cwarzel on Google before Congress: “So then what exactly is the point of all this? If the goal is mere catharsis, achieved by dragging billionaires across the country to be read the Riot Act by boomers in business attire, then, okay, it's a hit.” http://www.buzzfeed.com/... Casey Johnston / @caseyjohnston : very smart piece from @cwarzel on how congress manages to have such wildly unproductive hearings with tech companies http://www.buzzfeed.com/... Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel : I've watched all the tech hearings this year. I don't mean this to be glib but...what was the point of it all? My column: http://www.buzzfeed.com/... http://twitter.com/... @niemanlab : “It took more than two hours before Pichai was asked about YouTube's vast repository of slanderous conspiratorial videos. His lackluster reply — ‘We always think that there is more to do’ — went unchallenged by even the simplest of follow-ups.” http://www.buzzfeed.com/... Kevin Roose / @kevinroose : Rep. Poe (R-TX): “I have an iPhone.* If I go and sit with my Democratic friends over there, does Google track my movement?” *(Google does not make iPhones.) Clara Jeffery / @clarajeffery : This was seriously masterful way to show up both the hypocrisy and the tech ignorance rampant in Congress https://twitter.com/... Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : The #GoogleHearing was a huge missed opportunity - and a foreboding sign that despite their supposed unilateral belief that Big Tech's power has gotten out of hand, Congress can't get their act together to do anything about it. http://www.wired.com/... @wired : Sundar Pichai's hearing was a major missed opportunity. But here's one of more attention-grabbing moments. Rep. Ted Lieu: “If you are getting bad press articles and bad search results, don't blame Google or Facebook or Twitter. Consider blaming yourself.” http://www.wired.com/... http://twitter.com/...