Google's top U.S. public policy official leaving post

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google unit said on Friday that its Washington office chief, who also heads Americas policy, is stepping down as the company faces criticism on issues including how it protects users' privacy and its investment plans in China.

Susan Molinari, a former Republican member of Congress who has run Google's Washington policy operations for nearly seven years, will move to a new job at the company as a senior advisor in January, the company said in a statement.

Google is recruiting a new head of Americas policy, the company said.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in September met with lawmakers and agreed to testify before Congress later this year.

Alphabet faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats for refusing to send parent company CEO Larry Page or Pichai to a Senate hearing in September, where senators left an empty chair next to Twitter Inc's CEO and Facebook Inc chief operating officers.

It also has faced numerous accusations of bias against conservatives, a charge that Google denies, and questions about whether it will comply with China's censorship demands if it reenters the search engine market there.

Alphabet said last month it would shut down the consumer version of its failed social network Google+ and tighten its data-sharing policies after announcing that the private profile data of at least 500,000 users might have been exposed to hundreds of external developers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Chang)