When dispatching millions of Republicans’ emails to users’ Gmail spam files, the Republican National Committee claims Google is trying to suppress get-out-the-vote and emails about raising money.
The party leadership has threatened to investigate legal options to “put a stop” to what they refer to as a “consistent trend of bias.”
Emails Classified as Spam
Officials with the RNC claim their emails sent out in the closing days of each month to Republican members with Gmail accounts are being classified as spam.
Since September 28, upwards of 22 million RNC emails—including 358,000 GOTV emails—have been “suppressed” by Gmail, an RNC official told Fox News Digital.
Over 3.1 million RNC emails were spammed via Gmail on September 28. Well over 9.8 million RNC emails were spammed by Gmail the following day; nearly 9.97 million RNC emails were spammed by Gmail on September 30.
Republicans have reportedly brought up this matter with Google “for months,” according to an RNC official, and they claim to have gotten “no remedy.”
We have raised this issue with @Google for months with no resolution (see below). On top of it all, our emails have been suppressed despite concrete changes that have improved overall performance.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!https://t.co/5sBIk5WvMS
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 29, 2022
She responded, “Enough is enough. The RNC is investigating our legal avenues to stop this blatant pattern of prejudice in Big Tech, which is harming the democratic process.”
Officials from the RNC are currently pleading with the Federal Election Commission to open an official probe into Google’s methods.
Google, meanwhile, informed Fox News that whether emails are categorized as spam or not “plays no part” in the political leanings of the sender.
Whilst the program is still in its initial stages, Castaeda told Fox News that Google is currently seeing a limited handful of verified political campaigns from both major parties engaging.
As the trial develops, “We will keep paying attention and adapt to input,” he added.
The pilot program is available to specific political committees that are fully registered with the FEC during the 2022 elections and were authorized by the FEC in a bipartisan vote of 4-1.
EXCLUSIVE: @GOP says @gmail sent more than 22M #Republican #GOTV & #fundraising emails to users' #spam folders since 9/28–a "pattern" they see at the end of each month.
But @Google says this has nothing to do with political affiliation @peterjhasson https://t.co/KAiKiEMn4V— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) October 3, 2022
Campaigns with a 5% spam rate will be dropped from the experimental program, according to Castaeda.
Democrat Emails Favored
Republicans, however, have cited an impartial study from North Carolina State University.
It revealed although more than two-thirds of emails from conservative candidates are flagged as spam, the overwhelming bulk of emails from the Democrat Party are allowed to reach the user’s mailbox.
The study discovered that while Gmail moved the majority of emails from right-wing candidates to the junk folder (up to 77.2% designated as spam), it kept the majority of emails from left-wing candidates in their inboxes (with only 10.12% of them being flagged as spam).
An RNC official claimed during the 2020 election cycle, the analysis discovered Gmail sent Republican campaign emails to spam at a rate that was almost 820% greater than that of comparable Democratic emails.
It remains to be seen what happens next.
This article appeared in Powerhouse News and has been published here with permission.
