FEC dismisses GOP complaint that Gmail spam filters favored Democrats

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) dismissed a Republican-filed complaint that Google’s Gmail spam filters unfairly censored GOP fundraising emails at a higher rate than it did for Democrats. 

The complaint, filed in April, argued Google effectively made “illegal corporate in-kind contributions” to campaigns for President Biden and other Democrats through the alleged politically biased filters.

The FEC told Google in a letter last week it “finds no reason to believe” that the tech giant made or the Biden campaign accepted “prohibited in-kind corporate contributions” in violation of the law. 

“Google has credibly supported its claim that its spam filter is in place for commercial reasons and thus did not constitute a contribution,” the FEC wrote, according to a copy of the letter. 

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the FEC’s dismissal “reaffirms that Gmail does not filter emails for political purposes.” 

“We’ll continue to invest in our Gmail industry-leading spam filters because, as the FEC notes, they’re important to protecting people’s inboxes from receiving unwanted, unsolicited, or dangerous messages,” he said in a statement. 

Following the GOP complaint, Google launched a pilot program that allowed campaigns to dodge spam filters. 

The FEC voted 4-1 to approve the program in August, concluding that the test of the feature is permissible under campaign law. Commissioner Ellen Weintraub voted against it, saying she has a “hard time getting around the fact that this is a unique benefit offered to political committees, and only to political committees.”

Even after the program launched, though, Republican campaigns didn’t sign up to be part of it, The Verge first reported in October. 

Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesperson Nathan Brand said in a statement that “we’re disappointed that the FEC dismissed this complaint” but the body is looking forward to seeing an RNC lawsuit based on similar allegations play out in California. 

The RNC sued Google in October over allegations that the company is sending GOP campaign emails to spam. 

Doubling down on the accusations, Brand said “the RNC will continue to hold Big Tech accountable for putting its thumb on the scales to help Democrats win elections.” 

— Updated at 2:09 p.m.