A person dressed up like the Monopoly man is sat behind Google's CEO as he testified in Congress
A person dressed as the mustachioed character from the game Monopoly sat a few rows behind Google CEO Sundar Pichai during his hearing Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
Ian Madrigal, the person who identified themselves as the Monopoly Man, said the act is a protest of the internet company's alleged inability to self-regulate when it comes to protecting consumer data.
The "Monopoly Man" first made their debut at the Equifax hearing last year.
A person dressed as the mustachioed character from the popular game Monopoly was back in congress on Tuesday for Google GOOGL CEO Sundar Pichai's hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
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The self-dubbed Monopoly Man, identified as Ian Madrigal on social media, first made their debut at the Senate's Equifax EFX hearings last year. Madrigal, who recently changed their name from Amanda Werner and uses gender neutral pronouns, said in a statement on Twitter that they were holding a "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card" at the Google hearing. Madrigal is a strategy director for Revolution Messaging , the firm run by Keegan Goudiss, Bernie Sanders' director of digital advertising during the 2016 election.
The Monopoly Man stunt is a protest of the alleged inability of tech companies like Google to self-regulate to protect consumers' personal data, according to Madrigal's statement.
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"We have no say in how Google uses even our most personal data, and the only way to opt out is to boycott the internet itself," Madrigal said in a statement on Twitter. "We can't rely on tech giants to self-regulate. It is past time for Congress to step in and do its job."
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At the hearing Tuesday, Pichai fielded questions from representatives ranging from how Google filters search results and controls for bias to how Google manages misinformation on its platforms.
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