By Naveen Athrappully
Google has denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent allegations of the tech company’s partisan administration of its Gmail service in favor of Democratic emails over Republican content.
On Aug. 28, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai alleging that the tech giant was potentially violating an FTC rule when its Gmail service used a “partisan approach” while administering spam filters.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, “may be engaging in unfair or deceptive acts” when it prefers messages coming from Republican senders, Ferguson said. Gmail allegedly “routinely” blocks GOP emails from getting delivered compared to similar messages from Democrats, said Ferguson, citing media reports.
A Google spokesperson said Gmail’s spam filters apply equally to all, regardless of political ideology.
“Gmail’s spam filters look at a variety of objective signals—like whether people mark a particular email as spam, or if a particular ad agency is sending a high volume of emails that are often marked by people as spam. This applies equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology,” the spokesperson said, adding that they will review Ferguson’s letter and engage “constructively” on it.
Citing an Aug. 13 New York Post report, Ferguson said “Alphabet has ‘been caught this summer flagging Republican fundraising emails as “dangerous” spam—keeping them from hitting Gmail users’ inboxes—while leaving similar solicitations from Democrats untouched.’”
Ferguson pointed to a letter received from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) in May asking the FTC to investigate Google’s email categorization practices.
In the letter, NRCC officials said that several emails sent during the recent election cycle by national party committees to their supporters ended up in spam folders. Google’s Gmail service “routinely delivers fewer emails to inboxes” than other email providers, adding that the recipients had voluntarily opted in to receive the emails.
The NRCC stated that Google’s alleged speech suppression “starves committees of revenue that could be spent on get-out-the-vote and voter assistance programs.”
According to data from different analytics companies, Gmail holds a firm grip on the U.S. email market, boasting a 75 percent share. Over 60 percent of mid-sized companies in the country rely on Gmail services.
Ferguson said that Google could be found in potential violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.
Section 5 prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts” affecting commerce. An entity would be considered deceptive if it misleads consumers, said Ferguson.
“If Gmail’s filters keep Americans from receiving speech they expect, or donating as they see fit, the filters may harm American consumers and may violate the FTC Act’s prohibition of unfair or deceptive trade practices,” Ferguson said.
According to Google, spam filters exist to stop unwanted, unsolicited, or dangerous messages from reaching inboxes.
“While Gmail users appreciate these tools, we sometimes get questions from organizations that send large amounts of emails (also known as bulk senders), including retailers, nonprofit organizations, and groups from across the political spectrum, about how our mail classification tools work,” said Google.
The company said that it relies on “machine learning powered by user feedback” to identify spam messages and categorize patterns in large data sets.
AI-driven filters look at a variety of signals to make conclusions.
The Epoch Times reached out to Google for comment regarding Ferguson’s letter and did not receive a response by publication time.
During the midterm elections in 2022, the NRCC, along with the Republican National Committee (RNC) and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), filed a joint complaint with the FEC to investigate allegations against Gmail’s algorithm.
GOP groups said that the alleged bias shown by Google adversely impacted their ability to reach their supporters and raise funds.
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the RNC failed to state a claim under the California Unfair Competition Law.
Reuters contributed to this report.
