U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted Google in a tweet on Tuesday, accusing the tech giant of giving a "silent donation" to a left-wing group to stop President Donald Trump, and for allegedly working with China and Russia to censor the internet.
The Republican official said an "invite will be on its way" to the company — presumably a request for it to testify.
Tweet: Google claims to be fair, but gave a "silent donation" to a left-wing group to stop Trump; Works w/ China/Russia to censor the internet, but cancelled a contract with our military; Ignores Senate hearing; It's time for @Google to answer some ?'s An invite will be on its way.
Google did not immediately offer a comment in response to questions from CNBC about McCarthy's Twitter post.
It wasn't clear what McCarthy was referring to when he claimed Google gave "a 'silent donation' to a left-wing group to stop Trump." Phone calls made to McCarthy's offices outside business hours went unanswered. Such an allegation was made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this week, but CNBC was unable to independently verify his claims.
McCarthy's claim of Google supporting internet censorship may have been tied to reports from last month that said the tech giant had plans to launch a version of its search engine in China that would block some websites and search terms. That supposed plan was criticized by human rights advocates, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai later told employees that the company was "not close" to launching a search product in China and that whether it would — or could — "is all very unclear."
It was not clear, either, to what "cancelled" contract the congressman referred. In June, Google told its employees that it would not renew a contract to help the U.S. military analyze aerial drone imagery after it expires next March, according to a report, which added that more than 6,400 employees signed a petition calling for the company to end the deal.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee to address election meddling and abuse on their platforms. Google's Pichai and Alphabet CEO Larry Page were invited to testify as well but they declined.
The tech giant came under fire last month from Trump when the president said, without providing evidence, that its search engine was hiding "fair media" coverage of him and added that he would address the situation, without giving any details. Google denied any political bias.
— Reuters and CNBC's Sara Salinas contributed to this report.
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