FEC dismisses complaint of anti-Republican bias in Gmail spam filter
Christopher Hutton
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The Federal Election Commission dismissed allegations that Google’s email filter was biased against Republican fundraising emails.
The Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee alleged in a complaint filed last year that Google’s filter placed GOP emails into the spam folder more often than it did Democratic fundraising.
However, the election regulatory agency failed to find substantial evidence that Google’s conduct was politically discriminatory.
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“Google has credibly supported its claim that its spam filter is in place for commercial reasons and thus did not constitute a contribution,” the FEC wrote in an analysis reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
The agency found that Google established that its filter was designed to aid users by keeping out malware, phishing, and scams and not political ads. The decision means that the FEC is closing its file regarding Google’s email practices, according to an FEC letter sent to the search giant.
“The Commission’s bipartisan decision to dismiss this complaint reaffirms that Gmail does not filter emails for political purposes,” said Google spokesman Jose Castaneda in a statement. “We’ll continue to invest in our Gmail industry-leading spam filters because, as the FEC notes, they’re important to protecting people’s inboxes from receiving unwanted, unsolicited, or dangerous messages.”
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The three Republican committees claimed there was filter bias based on a study completed by North Carolina State computer science researchers, who reviewed more than 300,000 emails sent between May and November 2020 and found that GOP fundraising emails were significantly more likely to end up in spam than Democratic fundraising emails. Google shifted its practices in response to the GOP complaints, including by introducing a pilot program that would exempt political emails from spam filters.
The RNC did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.