Trump says Google may be a ‘national security concern’ and vows to launch probe into China relationship

Anthony Cuthbertson
Friday 26 July 2019 11:08 EDT
Comments
Trump says Google may be a ‘national security concern’ and vows to launch probe into China relationship

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Donald Trump says Google may be a "national security concern" because of its relationship with China, and suggested he will launch a probe into the company.

"There may or may not be National Security concerns with regard to Google and their relationship with China," he wrote on Twitter.

"If there is a problem, we will find out about it. I sincerely hope there is not!!!"

Google has previously accused of working with China's government, most notably from billionaire investor Peter Thiel.

Despite these claims, Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin said earlier this week that the White House had no concerns about Google's relationship with China.

Last week, Google's vice president of public policy Karan Bhatia appeared in front of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to face questions about the tech giant's content policies.

During the hearing, Mr Bhatia rejected previous allegations by Mr Thiel that Google had been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence agents.

He also said Google's controversial Project Dragonfly plan to build a censored search engine for China has been "terminated."

Peaking to Republican Senator Josh Hawley, Mr Bhatia said: "Fundamentally in China we actually do very little today, certainly compared to any other major technology company."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in