Google Sued for Sending Republican Committee Emails to Gmail’s Spam Folder

The Republican National Committee (RNC) believes Google is suppressing its email solicitations by sending them directly to the spam folder in Gmail.

As the Associated Press reports(Opens in a new window), the RNC has filed a lawsuit against Google in the District Court for the Eastern District of California. It alleges Gmail is sending the RNC’s emails directly to the spam folder, which has a negative impact on fundraising and “get-out-the-vote efforts.” The committee views this as discrimination.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement, “for ten months in a row, Google has sent crucial end-of-month Republican GOTV and fundraising emails to spam with zero explanation. We are committed to putting an end to this clear pattern of bias.”

In response, Google points out that’s not how spam filters work in Gmail. Spokesperson José Castañeda explained, “as we have repeatedly said, we simply don’t filter emails based on political affiliation. Gmail’s spam filters reflect users’ actions.”

Back in June, Republican senators introduced a bill seeking to stop email providers from automatically sending campaign messages to the spam folder. In August, a pilot program was created by Google to allow candidate committees, political party committees, and leadership PACs to bypass users’ spam folders and make sure their emails land in people’s inboxes.

You’d think such pilot program would resolve the problem for the RNC, but there’s just one problem: the RNC didn’t sign up to participate. That fact may end up playing a pivotal role in the outcome of this lawsuit.

The Golden Rules of Email Marketing