Google executives are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee accusing the tech giant of disproportionately marking campaign emails sent by the GOP as spam, according to reports.
Google filed a motion in the Eastern District of California to dismiss the lawsuit on Monday night, claiming the RNC’s arguments were “both illogical and contrary to the facts alleged in its own complaint,” the filing states, according to a copy obtained by Axios. The request comes after the Federal Election Commission ruled last week that Google did not show bias against Republicans in its Gmail feature that filters campaign messages.
FEC DISMISSES COMPLAINT OF ANTI-REPUBLICAN BIAS IN GMAIL SPAM FILTER
“As the FEC’s recent bipartisan decision confirmed, we don’t filter emails for political purposes and like the FEC complaint, this suit is without merit,” said Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesman, in a statement. “We will keep investing in spam-filtering technologies that protect people from unwanted messages while still allowing senders to reach inboxes of users who want to see those messages.”
The RNC filed a lawsuit in October alleging the tech giant was unfairly marking GOP campaign emails as spam while allowing Democratic messages to land in users’ inboxes. The committee accused Google of exhibiting “blatant bias” by sending the party’s get-out-the-vote messages and fundraising emails to spam folders without explaining why, according to the suit.
The lawsuit came in response to a pilot program Google began implementing in August that allowed campaign emails to bypass the platform’s spam filters so that users could see the messages before moving them to the junk folder themselves. The program is scheduled to end on Jan. 31.
Google initiated that program shortly after the FEC ruled it would be legal under campaign finance laws, prompting criticism from some Republicans who argued it wasn’t enough to ensure GOP emails made their way to voters.
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Republicans have long hit out against the tech giant for perceived bias in how it handles campaign messaging, pointing to a study from the University of North Carolina released in April 2022 showing Gmail was far more likely to mark GOP campaign messages as spam compared to Democratic ones.
That study prompted Senate Republicans to introduce a bill in June that would require Big Tech companies to disclose how their filtering techniques work. The legislation failed to make its way to a floor vote before the new Congress began on Jan. 3.
