SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 The Republican National Committee has\u00a0filed a lawsuit\u00a0against tech giant Google, alleging the company has been suppressing its email solicitations ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections \u2014 an allegation Google denies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of California Friday evening, accuses Gmail of \u201cdiscriminating\u201d against the RNC by unfairly sending the group\u2019s emails to users\u2019 spam folders, impacting both fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts in pivotal swing states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEnough is enough \u2014 we are suing Google for their blatant bias against Republicans,\u201d said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement to The Associated Press. \u201cFor ten months in a row, Google has sent crucial end-of-month Republican GOTV and fundraising emails to spam with zero explanation. We are committed to putting an end to this clear pattern of bias.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google, in a statement, denied the charges. \u201cAs we have repeatedly said, we simply don\u2019t filter emails based on political affiliation. Gmail\u2019s spam filters reflect users\u2019 actions,\u201d said spokesperson Jos\u00e9 Casta\u00f1eda, adding that the company provides training and guidelines to campaigns and works to \u201cmaximize email deliverability while minimizing unwanted spam.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit focuses on how Google\u2019s Gmail, the world\u2019s largest email service with about 1.5 billion users, screens solicitations and other material to help prevent users from being inundated by junk mail. To try to filter material that account holders may not want in their inboxes, Google and other major email providers create programs that flag communications likely to be perceived as unwelcome and move them to spam folders that typically are rarely, if ever, perused by recipients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suit says Google has \u201crelegated millions of RNC emails en masse to potential donors\u2019 and supporters\u2019 spam folders during pivotal points in election fundraising and community building\u201d \u2014 particularly at the end of each month, when political groups tend to send more messages. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether the email is about donating, voting, or community outreach. And it doesn\u2019t matter whether the emails are sent to people who requested them,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google contends its algorithms are designated to be neutral, but\u00a0a study released in March\u00a0by North Carolina State University found that Gmail was far more likely to block messages from conservative causes. The study, based on emails sent during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2020, estimated Gmail placed roughly 10% of email from \u201cleft-wing\u201d candidates into spam folders, while marking 77% from \u201cright-wing\u201d candidates as spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gmail rivals Yahoo and Microsoft\u2019s Outlook were more likely to favor pitches from conservative causes than Gmail, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RNC seized upon that study in April to\u00a0call upon the Federal Election Commission\u00a0to investigate Google\u2019s \u201ccensorship\u201d of its fundraising efforts, which it alleged amounted to an in-kind contribution to Democratic candidates and served as \u201ca financially devastating example of Silicon Valley tech companies unfairly shaping the political playing field to benefit their preferred far-left candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, the commission has approved a pilot program that creates a way for political committees to get around spam filters so their fundraising emails find their way into recipients\u2019 primary inboxes. Gmail is participating in the \u201c\u00a0Verified Sender Program,\u00a0\u201d which allows senders to bypasses traditional spam filters, but also gives users the option of unsubscribing from a sender. If the unsubscribe button is hit, a sender is supposed to remove that Gmail address from their distribution lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Friday evening, the RNC had not signed up to participate in the pilot program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans who have tried to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election without parroting the most extreme and baseless claims about corrupted voting machines and stolen votes have often tried to blame big technology companies like Twitter and Facebook that they allege were biased against former President Donald Trump. A long list of state and local election officials, courts and members of Trump\u2019s own administration have said there is no evidence of the mass fraud Trump alleges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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