The campaign arms of the House and Senate Republicans alleged to the Federal Trade Commission that Google was suppressing their emails to supporters, routing them to spam folders.
A joint letter from National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC) asked FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson to investigate Google and its Gmail servers, alleging bias against conservative subscribers. The letter marks a departure from the brief detente between conservatives and Big Tech, who appeared to be warming to each other after some overtures by Big Tech heads toward President Donald Trump.
“We write jointly to alert the Federal Trade Commission to an increasingly prevalent practice: Big Tech suppression of conservative speech,” Scott and Hudson wrote.
The duo said that during the last election cycle, a “substantial” number of emails sent to supporters were routed to their spam folders, especially when sent to Gmail accounts.
“The matter of whether emails are properly categorized as spam may sound inconsequential, but it is not. If party committees and candidates are unable to communicate with their supporters via email, then they are denied access to a critical channel for communicating essential election-related information that would aid voters in effectively casting their ballots,” they wrote, arguing that Google’s “speech suppression” was directly harming voter turnout.
“The cost of Google’s suppression should therefore be calculated not only in dollars never raised, but in votes never cast,” the chairs added.
Google spokesman Jose Castaneda dismissed the complaint as baseless.
“Quite simply: Gmail spam filters are not politically biased. They look at a variety of signals — like whether a user marks an email as spam — and apply equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology,” he told Axios.
“Spam filters are important — they keep people safe and in control of their inboxes,” Castaneda added.
The FTC announced an inquiry into alleged Big Tech censorship in February.
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“Tech firms should not be bullying their users,” Ferguson said at the time. “This inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”
The deadline for the public to submit statements regarding alleged Big Tech censorship was Wednesday.