On Friday, the Republican National Committee (RNC) sued Google for allegedly directing its emails to spam folders.
In a complaint submitted to the Eastern District of California, the U.S. political organization claims that the internet giant discriminated against it by “throttling its email messages because of the RNC’s political affiliation and viewpoints.”
During crucial times for campaign fundraising and community building, “Google has demoted millions of RNC emails en masse to potential donors’ and supporters’ spam bins,” the RNC claimed in the lawsuit.
An inquiry from reporters received no response from Google.
Unwanted “spam” communications are often removed by spam filters on email services and directed to a different folder.
The RNC claimed that while nearly all of its emails go into users’ inboxes for the majority of the month, at the end of the month, which is a crucial time for fundraising, virtually all of its emails go into spam bins.
The lawsuit claimed that it doesn’t matter whether the email is about giving, voting, or community outreach because this time of the month is historically when the RNC’s fundraising is most effective.
Despite the committee’s best efforts to cooperate with Google, it claimed that the “discrimination” had been occurring for nearly ten months.
It said that because so much of its mail was ending up in spam folders, it had already lost money and would continue to lose money as the midterm elections approach.
Republicans have long charged tech behemoths with restricting free speech and discriminating against conservative viewpoints.
The IT firms dispute that.
