Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have seen their share price dip as it has been announced the firm plan to ignore the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s request to appear at a hearing for Russian meddling in the 2016 election, alongside Facebook and Twitter.
Though the company were asked to send either their CEO or the Chief Executive of their parent company Alphabet, Larry Page, they have opted instead to offer the services of their chief lawyer Kent Walker. While Twitter and Facebook have faced public scrutiny over the course of the last year, they still look set to appear at the hearing – whereas, symbolically, the likelihood is that Google’s seat in the hearing will be left empty.
While the Committee’s vice chair, Senator Mark Warner, has already tabled a subpoena as follow-up action should Google opt for a no-show, there is quite little that can be done to make the company abide by any rules other than their own. Indeed, only recently did the EU deliver the largest fine in its history to Google, to the tune of $5 billion, but this was shrugged off soon after as the company announced quarterly revenues of $33 billion.
Similarly, it has been said that non-compliance could be costly at least in regard to PR, with President Trump calling Google on on allegedly censoring content with conservative leanings, and now Senator Warner saying, “I think there will be a lot more questions raised that could have been actually dealt with if they sent a senior decision-maker [to the hearing] and not simply their counsel.”
However, many would be right in thinking that to this point, Google’s ability to dodge or quell controversy is bulletproof, and taking some short-term flack or financial repercussions would be far more favourable than having to weather the same kind of drawn-out public ridicule that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to endure earlier this year.
Following the news, Alphabet’s share price is currently trading down $20.49 or 1.66% at $1211.21 a share.