FTC puts Google on notice for ‘partisan’ filtering against Republicans

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson is pressing Google over allegations that its Gmail platform is unfairly targeting Republican emails while giving Democrats a pass.

In an Aug. 28 letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Ferguson said he was concerned by reports that Gmail’s spam filters block Republican political messages at a much higher rate than similar Democratic emails. The FTC chairman warned that such practices could violate federal regulations and potentially trigger an investigation.

“A consumer’s right to hear from candidates or parties, including solicitations for donations, is not diminished because that consumer’s political preferences may run counter to your company’s or your employees’ political preferences,” Ferguson wrote in the letter.

“If Gmail’s filters keep Americans from receiving speech they expect, or donating as they see fit, the filters may harm American consumers and may violate the FTC Act’s prohibition of unfair or deceptive trade practices,” he said.

In an August memo to clients, Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory alleged that Gmail was flagging emails with links to the GOP fundraising platform WinRed, often sending them straight to spam, according to the New York Post. Emails with links to ActBlue, the Democrats’ main fundraising platform, were delivered without issue, the outlet reported.

Republicans have long accused Big Tech firms of suppressing conservative content and viewpoints.

The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against Google in 2022, claiming that Gmail was pushing its fundraising emails into spam folders and costing the party hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost donations. A federal judge dismissed that case, but the issue has remained a major flashpoint for conservatives.

A Google spokesperson said the company will review the letter and engage “constructively” on it, but pushed back on claims of bias.

“Gmail’s spam filters look at a variety of objective signals – like whether people mark a particular email as spam, or if a particular ad agency is sending a high volume of emails that are often marked by people as spam. This applies equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology,” the spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The FTC under Trump has made confronting Big Tech censorship and bias a top priority. The commission launched an official request for public comments in February, asking Americans to detail cases where they’ve faced consequences from companies for expressing disfavored political speech.

The FTC did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

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