Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday, announcing he has opened an investigation into Google’s alleged failure to remove child sex abuse material (CSAM).
Hawley wrote in his letter to Pichai:
Yesterday, the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which I chair, convened a hearing to investigate gaps in enforcement efforts to stop child sex trafficking. The testimony was shocking. Witnesses described an explosion of child sex abuse material (CSAM) online, which surpassed 100 million separate images and videos of suspected abuse in 2023 alone. We also learned at least 89,000 children depicted in these images remain unidentified—suffering without help—in just one single law enforcement database among many. Testimony further established that Google has failed to take robust action to assist survivors.
Hawley, the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, held a hearing on Tuesday, “Lost and Exploited: Confronting Child Trafficking and the Failure to Protect America’s Most Vulnerable.” He said that during the hearing lawmakers learned that there are “at least 89,000 children depicted in these images remain unidentified —suffering without help — in just one single law enforcement database among many.”
“Testimony further established that Google has failed to take robust action to assist survivors,” he added in his letter to the Google executive.
Hawley quoted Jane Doe, the mother of a survivor, who testified that she still receives notifications of CSAM depicting her infant daughter, twenty-five years after the abuse took place.
She testified:
I’ve been fighting since day one. That’s all I do. I contact people… I said, if we were famous, if she was a celebrity, those pictures would be down. I said, she’s not famous. She’s famous to me, but evidently not famous enough to the world… I have had a fight with Google about it, saying for the safety of my child, you have to get these images off… these pictures are out there… it’s imperative that you get these things off the computer… they told me I have to contact the webmaster…
Hawley said he is asking for “all internal policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures currently in effect at Google, YouTube, and any other Alphabet subsidiary relating to the detection, review, removal, and reporting of known and suspected child sexual abuse material.”
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