Google CEO Sundar Pichai Tuesday responded to Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) confusion over why he sees unwelcome news on his iPhone, telling King, “Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company.”
Pichai was on Capitol Hill Tuesday testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee for more than three hours.
King questioned Pichai why his granddaughter sees news about King when she is playing a game on the iPhone.
{mosads}“I have a 7-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 of her grandfather. And I’m not going to say into the record what kind of language was used around that picture of her grandfather, but I’d ask you: how does that show up on a 7-year-old’s iPhone, who’s playing a kid’s game?”
Pichai responded to the question by clarifying that Google does not make the iPhone.
King rebutted, saying the phone might have been an Android instead.
Pichai told the congressman he could follow up with him once he better understood the specifics as to what King was referring to.
“There may be an application which was being used which had a notification. But I’m happy to understand it better and clarify it for you,” Pichai said.
King may have been referencing the bevy of news stories outlining King’s racist comments in the past and affiliation with white nationalist groups.