Author: Daisuke Wakabayashi / Source: New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — A video posted to the right-wing media site Breitbart on Wednesday showed Google executives bemoaning the election of President Trump at a company meeting in 2016.
The release of the leaked video is the latest volley in an expanding campaign by Republicans and allies in the media to demonstrate that Google and other Silicon Valley firms are biased against conservatives. Last week, Jeff Sessions, the United States attorney general, said he will meet with Republican state attorneys general this month to discuss whether social media companies are stifling conservative voices.
Google has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks since Mr. Trump accused the company of gaming search results to suppress positive stories about his administration — a charge the company denied and that search experts said was implausible.
The company also annoyed both Republicans and Democrats last week by declining to send a top executive to testify at a Senate committee hearing on foreign interference in elections. Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey attended the session, and a seat for a Google executive was theatrically left empty next to them.
The hourlong video of a companywide meeting in November 2016 shows a parade of senior executives from Google and its parent company, Alphabet, expressing dismay about the election.
Google often holds all-hands gatherings it calls T.G.I.F. meetings. They are usually streamed over the internet to company offices all over the world.Among the people who spoke were Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, and Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer. Both appeared to become emotional, choking up while speaking. Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, said that he was “deeply offended” by the election of Mr. Trump and that…
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