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'Pick-eye' or 'pee-chay': US senators fail to pronounce Google CEO Sundar Pichai's name

'Pick-eye' or 'pee-chay': US senators fail to pronounce Google CEO Sundar Pichai's name

During the virtual hearing, chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Senator Roger Wicker pronounced his last name as 'Pick-Eye' in his opening remarks. Senator Amy Klobuchar tried 'Pee-Chay'

Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai

In a bizarre incident at the Capitol Hill, a panel of Democrats and Republican senators, who were questioning Google CEO Sundar, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the Section 30 hearing, consistently mispronounced Pichai's name.

During the virtual hearing, chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Senator Roger Wicker pronounced his last name as "Pick-Eye" in his opening remarks. Thereafter, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner was the second to mispronounce the Google CEO's name. Senator Amy Klobuchar tried "Pee-Chay" before getting the correct pronunciation on her second attempt.

And then, taking the lead from Chairman Wicker, other senators-Maria Cantwell, Marsha Blackburn, and Mike Lee all reverted to "Pick-Eye".

The senators kept juggling between 'pick-eye' and 'pee-chay.'

Many social media users found this incident disrespectful and even racist.


The three tech moguls were testified in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday in a hearing that was billed as deliberation over Section 230.

Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act was passed in the US in 1996. Under this law, "interactive computer service" can't be treated as the publisher or speaker of third-party content. This protects websites from lawsuits if a user posts something illegal, although there are exceptions for copyright violations, sex work-related material, and violations of federal criminal law.

Recently, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would strip those protections if online platforms engaged in "editorial decisions". The move came after Twitter added a fact-check warning to one of Trump's tweets.

During the hearing, Republicans scolded the companies for censoring conservative voices. Democrats asked the CEOs what they were doing to suppress violent extremism and election interference on their platforms.

Also read: Facebook warns of tougher 2021 even as COVID-19 raises ad revenue

Also read: Rs 1 lakh crore credit card loans at risk of COVID-19; biz degrows 3% in FY21

Published on: Oct 30, 2020, 8:52 AM IST
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