Ian Patrick, FISM News
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Once again, Google finds itself the subject of allegations regarding political bias.
According to an exclusive report from Fox News, the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a complaint through the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) urging the commission to investigate Google’s email distribution practices.
Specifically, the RNC alleges that emails it is sending at the end of every month to Republican subscribers with Gmail accounts are being directed to spam folders.
One official said Google has “suppressed” over 22 million GOP emails as of September 28 of this year. Apparently, the RNC has raised this issue to Google “for months,” according to another official, but to no avail.
Data supplied to Fox News by the RNC shows that GOP email delivery goes from “90-100%” down to 0% at the end of every month. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel likened the action to “clockwork.”
Every single month, like clockwork, Google suppresses important GOTV and fundraising emails at the end of the month, with zero explanation nor commitment from Google to resolve this issue. We are less than 40 days out from Election Day, and important GOTV emails to our opted-in voters in states that have already started early voting are being systematically sent to spam.
“Big Tech bias is undermining the democratic process and the RNC is exploring our legal options to put an end to this clear pattern of bias,” McDaniel added.
"It is obviously Big Tech putting their thumb on the scale once again against Republicans and for Democrats."@GOPChairwoman revealed actions taken by the RNC after reports Gmail "suppressed" emails from Republican candidates, on Wednesday's "Wake Up America." pic.twitter.com/96sezLY3cP
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) April 27, 2022
Google spokesperson José Castañeda told Fox News that there is no bias that plays into their placement of emails in the spam folder.
We enable political committees and other organizations to reach their constituents, donors, and key audiences via email. When Gmail users say that they don’t want to receive an email, we place the email in the spam folder, politics or political affiliation plays no role in this determination.
Castañeda also said that Google launched a new “pilot program” with the FEC that includes multiple political committees on both sides of the aisle. “We will continue to listen and respond to feedback as the pilot progresses,” Castañeda said. He added that any campaign which reaches a 5% spam rate will be automatically removed from the program.
However, Republicans continue to point to a recent study that suggests that political bias in Google’s email distribution system does indeed exist.
FISM News previously reported that four researchers from North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science discovered that Google marks a higher percentage of right-leaning emails as spam compared to left-leaning ones.
Collecting their data during the 2020 presidential election cycle, the researchers also discovered that Gmail increasingly marked Republican campaign emails as spam as the election date came closer.
This marks a similar tone to McDaniel’s complaint that GOP emails are being designated as spam at the end of every month this year, during the midterm election season.
Google rejected the findings of this study at the time.