Google is being sued by the Republican National Committee. The group on Friday filed a complaint with California’s Eastern District Court, according to Axios (via The Verge). According to the complaint, Google extended its “discriminatory” filtering procedures by sending “millions” of RNC campaign emails to Gmail spam folders.
The complaint states that nearly all of the RNC’s emails are sent to spam by Google at around the same time at the end of each month. Critically and strangely, the RNC’s fundraising has traditionally been most successful at the conclusion of the month.
The complaint was filed after Google introduced a divisive initiative to placate GOP lawmakers unhappy with its screening methods. Following a study that revealed Gmail had a higher propensity than rival email clients to filter emails from Republican campaigns, the company announced in June that it would collaborate with the Federal Election Commission to test a system that would stop political messages from ending up in spam folders. The agreement was reached following the introduction of a bill by Republican lawmakers that would have prohibited email providers from employing algorithms to automatically route campaign messages.
