Utah Sen. Mike Lee is questioning whether Google’s top executive lied to Congress because of new reports that it sent out voting reminders just to customers whom it had profiled as liberals.
Lee said that if that is true, it would show that Google CEO Sundar Pichai lied to Congress recently when he said his company would not do any work “to politically tilt anything one way or the other.”
Lee joined Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Ted Cruz of Texas in a letter to Pinchai warning they will review “Google’s politically biased activities” during the election and asked for his response to allegations by Thursday.
That comes after Robert Epstein, a research psychologist with the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, told Johnson that his group found evidence that Google was sending voting reminders only to liberals.
Epstein said he had recruited a politically diverse group of 733 field agents in Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. Between Oct. 26 and 29, Epstein said they found “only our liberal field agents received vote reminders on Google’s home page.”
Epstein said he sent information about that to the New York Post on Oct. 29. Later that night, he said the Post pulled down a story “about possible large-scale election rigging by Big Tech,” and “Google’s targeted messaging stopped completely. From midnight on the 29th to the end of Election Day, all of our field agents have received the vote reminder.”
Lee in a written statement said, “Dr. Epstein’s allegations appear credible and are very concerning.”
He added, “If it is true that Google is targeting messages to help Democrats win elections, then Google has not been truthful to Congress and has deceived countless Americans. These allegations must be taken seriously. Congress must have all the facts and evidence from Dr. Epstein with responses from Google as we consider changes to address these serious issues.”
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, which oversees legislation about monopolies, Lee has raised the possibility of breaking up what he sees as monopolies by the big tech companies because of partisan unfairness.
Cruz and Johnson also issued statements criticizing Google over the report from Epstein.
“Big Tech presents a grave threat to free speech in America and to the integrity of our elections,” Cruz said. “Google has more power than any company on the face of the planet, and Dr. Epstein’s findings raise serious concerns about Google’s abuse of that power and its willingness to manipulate its platform to help Joe Biden win the presidency.”
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