Congresswoman to Google CEO: Why when I search ‘idiot’ do I get pictures of Trump?

By Colby Itkowitz
December 11 at 5:04 PM

In an effort to understand how Google search algorithms work, a Democratic congresswoman asked the tech company’s chief executive a simple question: “If you Google the word ‘idiot' under images, a picture of Donald Trump comes up. How would that happen? How does search work so that that would occur?”

In the middle of a congressional hearing ostensibly about privacy and data collection, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) apparently performed that search from the dais. As it turns out, the image results for “idiot” reveals a page of mostly Trump photos.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, who was testifying Tuesday morning before the House Judiciary Committee, tried to explain to the roomful of mostly tech novices how the algorithms take into account some 200 factors — such as relevance, popularity, how others are using the search term — to determine how to best match a query with results.

“So it’s not some little man sitting behind the curtain figuring out what we’re going to show the user. It’s basically a compilation of what users are generating, and trying to sort through that information?” Zofgren asked, facetiously.

Zofgren was reacting to Republicans' allegations that Google employees manipulate results for political reasons. The hearing mostly revealed lawmakers' rudimentary understanding of how the Internet works and provided a platform for them to complain about unfavorable search results.

-snip-