Google has denied the recent allegations of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the tech company’s administration of its Gmail service favors Democrats’ emails over Republican content.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, “may be engaging in unfair or deceptive acts” when it prefers messages coming from Democrats, Ferguson wrote. Gmail allegedly “routinely” blocks GOP emails from getting delivered compared with similar messages from Democrats, Ferguson said, 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,” the spokesperson said.
“This applies equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology.”
The spokesperson also said that the company will review Ferguson’s letter and engage “constructively” with it.
In the letter, NRCC officials said several emails sent by national party committees to their supporters during the recent election cycle ended up in spam folders. Google’s Gmail service “routinely delivers fewer emails to inboxes” than other email providers, it stated, noting that the recipients had voluntarily opted 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.”
Section 5 prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts” affecting commerce. An entity would be considered deceptive if it misleads consumers, Ferguson said.
“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.
“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,” Google stated.
The company said it relies on “machine learning powered by user feedback” to identify spam messages and categorize patterns in large data sets.
Artificial intelligence-driven filters look at a variety of signals to make conclusions.
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
GOP groups said the alleged bias shown by Google adversely affected their ability to reach their supporters and raise funds.
