Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, and lawmakers peppered him with everything from allegations of bias against conservatives to questions about location data.

It could hardly be said that the focus of the hearing was on Google's plans for China, but the subject did come up from a handful of lawmakers, who expressed concern over reports that Google has been working on a search product that would comply with the Chinese government's stringent surveillance and censorship demands. The project, codenamed Dragonfly, has led to protests from both human rights activists and Google employees.

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In any congressional hearing about technology, at least a few lawmakers will use Silicon Valley executives as their own personal tech support staff. But usually, the questions at least involve products that their companies actually make. So Google CEO Sundar Pichai got particularly unlucky at a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee today, when Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asked Pichai to explain why his daughter's iPhone was acting strangely.

"I have a seven-year-old granddaughter who picked up her phone during the election, and she's playing a little game, the kind of game a kid would play," King told Pichai. "And up on there pops a picture o …

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Questioning Google CEO Sundar Pichai for the first time, House lawmakers could have hammered on any number of controversies. The company's plans for China, Google+ data breaches, and whether tech giants need to be more closely regulated all might have taken center stage.

But while lawmakers brought up all of those issues this morning at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, the Pichai hearing was dominated by allegations of bias against conservatives, as Democrats struggled to counter the narrative while introducing new questions. "We need to be sure that any political bias within Google's workforce does not creep into its workforce," …

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Dozens of human rights groups signed on to an open letter today protesting Google's plans for China, as CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to testify before a House committee tomorrow.

"We are writing to ask you to ensure that Google drops Project Dragonfly and any plans to launch a censored search app in China, and to re-affirm the company's 2010 commitment that it won't provide censored search services in the country," the letter, which is addressed to Pichai, begins.

Google has faced intense scrutiny since it was revealed that the company planned to launch a search product that would …

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Next week, Sundar Pichai will try to reassure Congress that Google's search engine isn't rigged. The Google CEO is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, answering questions about "potential bias and the need for greater transparency" in Google's business practices. It's Republican lawmakers' latest move in a series of hearings over Silicon Valley political bias. "Google has created some of the most powerful and impressive technology applications," wrote House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the announcement. "Unfortunately, recent reports suggest Google might not be wielding its vast power impartially. Its business pr …

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