Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced Wednesday that he has opened an investigation into Google over allegations the tech giant has not done enough to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from its platforms.
In a letter sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Hawley said testimony presented during a recent Senate hearing raised serious concerns about the scale of abuse material circulating online and the role technology companies may be playing in failing to adequately address it.
Hawley chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which held a hearing Tuesday titled “Lost and Exploited: Confronting Child Trafficking and the Failure to Protect America’s Most Vulnerable.”
During the hearing, witnesses described what Hawley called a dramatic surge in child exploitation material circulating online.
According to testimony cited by the senator, more than 100 million images and videos of suspected abuse were reported in 2023 alone. Investigators also warned that tens of thousands of children depicted in those materials remain unidentified in law enforcement databases.
Hawley said that in one database alone, at least 89,000 children shown in abuse images have not yet been identified, meaning victims may still be suffering without assistance.
The Missouri senator said testimony presented during the hearing suggested Google has not taken sufficient action to help victims and remove abusive material from its platforms.
“Testimony further established that Google has failed to take robust action to assist survivors,” Hawley wrote in his letter to Pichai.
Hawley also cited testimony from a woman identified as Jane Doe, the mother of a survivor who appeared at the hearing to describe her experience trying to remove abusive images from the internet.
According to Hawley, the mother said she continues to receive notifications that images of her daughter — recorded during abuse as an infant — are still circulating online more than two decades later.
The woman testified that she repeatedly contacted technology companies in an effort to have the images removed but encountered significant obstacles.
She said that during one interaction with Google, she was told she would need to contact the webmaster of the site hosting the images rather than having the material removed directly.
Hawley said the case highlights the difficulties victims face when attempting to remove abusive content from the internet.
As part of the investigation, Hawley requested that Google provide documents detailing the company’s internal policies for identifying and removing child exploitation material.
The senator specifically asked for information about the procedures used across Google, YouTube, and other subsidiaries owned by Alphabet to detect, review, remove, and report suspected abuse material.
The inquiry comes as lawmakers continue to examine the responsibilities of major technology companies in combating online exploitation and protecting vulnerable victims.
