Google is at it again — and GOP campaign donations might be a casualty.
The search giant 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, a consulting firm warned.
That’s despite repeatedly sparking headlines and lawsuits lately over the allegedly partisan practice. Last yr, a federal judge tossed a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee that complained of biased email filtering.
In 2023, the Federal Election Commission dismissed an RNC criticism alleging discrimination in Gmail’s spam filters.
Nonetheless, Targeted Victory – whose clients include the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rep. Steve Scalise and Sen. Marsha Blackburn – said it observed that the “serious and troubling” trend was still occurring as recently as June and July of this yr.
Gmail has been flagging emails containing links to the fundraising platform WinRed and “in lots of cases, sending them on to spam,” based on a replica of the memo to clients exclusively obtained by The Post.
Meanwhile, Targeted Victory conducted tests wherein emails containing links to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue were delivered without issue. The memo included video demonstrations of the firm’s tests.
“If Gmail is allowed to quietly suppress WinRed links while giving ActBlue a free pass, it should proceed to tilt the playing field in ways in which voters never see, but campaigns will feel each day,” the memo said.
The memo could fuel latest allegations of political bias against Google – which was accused by Elon Musk in March of interfering “to assist Democrats hundreds of times every election season.”
Critics including President Trump have accused Google of manipulating search results to harm Republicans and even of suppressing information of the assassination attempt against Trump last yr. The corporate has strenuously denied wrongdoing.
When reached for comment on Wednesday, Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the corporate’s “email filter protections are in place to maintain our users secure.”
“They give the impression of being at quite a lot of signals – like whether a user has previously marked an email as spam – and apply equally to all senders, no matter political ideology,” Castañeda said in an announcement.
A 2022 study by researchers at North Carolina State University found that Gmail flagged 59% more Republican fundraising emails as spam than Democratic ones throughout the leadup to the 2020 presidential election.
“We observed that the [spam filtering algorithms] of various email services indeed exhibit biases towards different political affiliations,” the researchers said on the time.
Targeted Victory said it first informed Google in regards to the issue on June 30 after receiving complaints from its clients. The corporate initially “deflected” by “blaming local settings” for the e-mail issues, based on the memo.
The consulting firm’s tests involved sending equivalent emails through Gmail, with the one difference being that one contained a WinRed donation link and the opposite contained an ActBlue link.
“The one difference between the 2 emails was the link,” the memo said. “ActBlue delivered. WinRed got flagged. That will not be a coincidence.”
“This held true even for major accounts, including Trump and Elise Stefanik links, in comparison with DNC links.”
After weeks of forwards and backwards with Google, the corporate’s support team acknowledged that links to WinRed were deemed “suspicious” and flagged with a “red warning banner” alerting users that it was “potentially suspicious or unsafe,” based on a screenshot of a July 22 email.
“This could alarm every campaign and committee that relies on email to attach with voters,” the memo said.
Google is at it again — and GOP campaign donations might be a casualty.
The search giant 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, a consulting firm warned.
That’s despite repeatedly sparking headlines and lawsuits lately over the allegedly partisan practice. Last yr, a federal judge tossed a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee that complained of biased email filtering.
In 2023, the Federal Election Commission dismissed an RNC criticism alleging discrimination in Gmail’s spam filters.
Nonetheless, Targeted Victory – whose clients include the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rep. Steve Scalise and Sen. Marsha Blackburn – said it observed that the “serious and troubling” trend was still occurring as recently as June and July of this yr.
Gmail has been flagging emails containing links to the fundraising platform WinRed and “in lots of cases, sending them on to spam,” based on a replica of the memo to clients exclusively obtained by The Post.
Meanwhile, Targeted Victory conducted tests wherein emails containing links to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue were delivered without issue. The memo included video demonstrations of the firm’s tests.
“If Gmail is allowed to quietly suppress WinRed links while giving ActBlue a free pass, it should proceed to tilt the playing field in ways in which voters never see, but campaigns will feel each day,” the memo said.
The memo could fuel latest allegations of political bias against Google – which was accused by Elon Musk in March of interfering “to assist Democrats hundreds of times every election season.”
Critics including President Trump have accused Google of manipulating search results to harm Republicans and even of suppressing information of the assassination attempt against Trump last yr. The corporate has strenuously denied wrongdoing.
When reached for comment on Wednesday, Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the corporate’s “email filter protections are in place to maintain our users secure.”
“They give the impression of being at quite a lot of signals – like whether a user has previously marked an email as spam – and apply equally to all senders, no matter political ideology,” Castañeda said in an announcement.
A 2022 study by researchers at North Carolina State University found that Gmail flagged 59% more Republican fundraising emails as spam than Democratic ones throughout the leadup to the 2020 presidential election.
“We observed that the [spam filtering algorithms] of various email services indeed exhibit biases towards different political affiliations,” the researchers said on the time.
Targeted Victory said it first informed Google in regards to the issue on June 30 after receiving complaints from its clients. The corporate initially “deflected” by “blaming local settings” for the e-mail issues, based on the memo.
The consulting firm’s tests involved sending equivalent emails through Gmail, with the one difference being that one contained a WinRed donation link and the opposite contained an ActBlue link.
“The one difference between the 2 emails was the link,” the memo said. “ActBlue delivered. WinRed got flagged. That will not be a coincidence.”
“This held true even for major accounts, including Trump and Elise Stefanik links, in comparison with DNC links.”
After weeks of forwards and backwards with Google, the corporate’s support team acknowledged that links to WinRed were deemed “suspicious” and flagged with a “red warning banner” alerting users that it was “potentially suspicious or unsafe,” based on a screenshot of a July 22 email.
“This could alarm every campaign and committee that relies on email to attach with voters,” the memo said.
