Hawley Opens Investigation into Google for Failure to Remove Child Sex Abuse Material

Hawley Opens Investigation into Google for Failure to Remove Child Sex Abuse Material

Wednesday, March 04, 2026

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai, informing the company that his Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism is opening an investigation into the role that Big Tech platforms like Google play in the crisis of child trafficking and online exploitation.

"Yesterday, the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which I chair, convened a hearing to investigate gaps in enforcement efforts to stop child sex trafficking. The testimony was shocking. Witnesses described an explosion of child sex abuse material (CSAM) online, which surpassed 100 million separate images and videos of suspected abuse in 2023 alone. We also learned at least 89,000 children depicted in these images remain unidentified-suffering without help-in just one single law enforcement database among many. Testimony further established that Google has failed to take robust action to assist survivors," Senator Hawley wrote.

He continued, "Jane Doe, the mother of a survivor, testified that she still receives notifications of CSAM depicting her infant daughter, even twenty-five years after the abuse took place: 'I've been fighting since day one. That's all I do. I contact people… I said, if we were famous, if she was a celebrity, those pictures would be down. I said, she's not famous. She's famous to me, but evidently not famous enough to the world…I have had a fight with Google about it, saying for the safety of my child, you have to get these images off… these pictures are out there… it's imperative that you get these things off the computer… they told me I have to contact the webmaster…'"

Senator Hawley concluded, "The Subcommittee is opening an investigation into the role that Big Tech platforms like Google play in perpetuating the crisis of child trafficking and exploitation."

As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, Senator Hawley closed the letter by requesting Google provide a list of documents and information relating to the child sex abuse material present within Google's platforms.

Read the full letter here or below.

Mr. Sundar Pichai

Chief Executive Officer

Alphabet Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, California 94043

Dear Mr. Pichai:

Yesterday, the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which I chair, convened a hearing to investigate gaps in enforcement efforts to stop child sex trafficking. The testimony was shocking. Witnesses described an explosion of child sex abuse material (CSAM) online, which surpassed 100 million separate images and videos of suspected abuse in 2023 alone. We also learned at least 89,000 children depicted in these images remain unidentified-suffering without help-in just one single law enforcement database among many. Testimony furtherestablished that Google has failed to take robust action to assist survivors.

The Subcommittee heard testimony from former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who testified to major gaps in various law enforcement databases and the lack of adequate staffing for experts in victim identification and federal investigative capacity. Additional expert witnesses explained that digital exploitation and coercion occur through recorded abuse and blackmail. They testified that children could be rescued from these abusive circumstances. Yet the most troubling testimony came from the parent of a survivor who revealed that this shocking abuse has still happened on your platform.

Jane Doe, the mother of a survivor, testified that she still receives notifications of CSAM depicting her infant daughter, even twenty-five years after the abuse took place:

I've been fighting since day one. That's all I do. I contact people… I said, if we were famous, if she was a celebrity, those pictures would be down. I said, she's not famous. She's famous to me, but evidently not famous enough to the world…I have had a fight with Google about it, saying for the safety of my child, you have to get these images off… these pictures are out there… it's imperative that you get these things off the computer… they told me I have to contact the webmaster…

The Subcommittee is opening an investigation into the role that Big Tech platforms like Google play in perpetuating the crisis of child trafficking and exploitation. Under the Subcommittee's jurisdiction over federal criminal law and the enforcement of laws relating to the sexual exploitation of children, please provide the following documents and information no later than March 18, 2026:

1. All internal policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures currently in effect at Google, YouTube, and any other Alphabet subsidiary relating to the detection, review, removal, and reporting of known and suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including any policies governing the use of hash-matching technology, artificial intelligence, or other automated detection tools.
2. All documents and communications relating to reports, complaints, or requests from individual victims, their families, or their legal representatives asking Google to remove CSAM or exploitative imagery from Google Search results, Google Images, YouTube, Google Drive, or any other Google product or service, from January 1, 2020 to the present, including records of response times and final dispositions.
3. All documents reflecting the number of CyberTipline reports Google has filed with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) annually from 2020 to the present, broken down by product or service (including Google Search, YouTube, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos), and any internal assessments of the adequacy or accuracy of such reporting.
4. All documents and communications concerning instances in which Google received a report of CSAM from a user, law enforcement agency, or NCMEC and did not remove the reported content within 48 hours, including the reasons for any delay and the ultimate disposition of each such report.
5. All documents relating to Google's policies and technical capabilities for de-indexing or removing from search results URLs that are known to host CSAM, including any limitations on Google's ability to prevent previously identified CSAM from reappearing in search results after removal.
6. All documents reflecting staffing levels, budget allocations, and organizational structure for Google's Trust and Safety teams responsible for CSAM detection, removal, and reporting from 2020 to the present, including any internal assessments of whether current staffing levels are adequate to address the volume of CSAM on Google's platforms.
7. All documents and communications relating to any decision by Google not to deploy, or to limit the deployment of, available CSAM detection technology on any Google product or service, including the reasons for any such decision.
8. All documents and communications relating to the impact of end-to-end encryption or other privacy-enhancing technologies on Google's ability to detect and report CSAM across its products and services, including any internal analysis of the tradeoffs between user privacy and child safety.
9. All documents relating to Google's cooperation with federal, state, and international law enforcement agencies in investigations involving CSAM hosted on or distributed through Google's platforms, including any instances in which Google declined or was unable to comply with a law enforcement request, and the reasons for any such refusal.
10. All documents and communications relating to any internal review, audit, or assessment conducted by Google since January 1, 2020 evaluating the effectiveness of Google's CSAM detection and removal practices, including any findings of deficiencies and any remedial actions taken or recommended.

Sincerely,

Senator Josh Hawley

Chairman, Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism

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