Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, August 14, 2025 Real World News
Google is continuing its practice of flagging fundraising emails for Republicans as “dangerous” spam while leaving solicitations for Democrats untouched, a GOP consulting firm said.
If true, is this legal for a massive company that is also a federal contractor?
Google LLC has been hit with lawsuits in recent years over the allegedly partisan practice. But with a market cap larger than the GDP of South Korea or Australia, such could be compared to a “butterfly’s belch,” to quote the late New York City talk show host Barry Farber.
Last year, a federal judge tossed a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC) that complained of biased email filtering.
In 2023, the Federal Election Commission dismissed an RNC complaint alleging discrimination in Gmail’s spam filters.
Targeted Victory – whose clients include the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rep. Steve Scalise, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn – said it found the “serious and troubling” trend was still going on as recently as June and July of this year.
Gmail has been flagging emails containing links to the fundraising platform WinRed and “in many cases, sending them directly to spam,” according to a copy of a memo to clients that was obtained by the New York Post.
Targeted Victory reported that it conducted tests in which emails containing links to the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue were delivered without issue.
“If Gmail is allowed to quietly suppress WinRed links while giving ActBlue a free pass, it will continue to tilt the playing field in ways that voters never see, but campaigns will feel every single day,” the memo said.
Targeted Victory’s tests involved sending identical emails through Gmail, with the only difference being that one contained a WinRed donation link and the other contained an ActBlue link.
“The only difference between the two emails was the link,” the memo said. “ActBlue delivered. WinRed got flagged. That is not a coincidence.”
“This held true even for major accounts, including Trump and Elise Stefanik links, compared to DNC links.”
“This should alarm every campaign and committee that relies on email to connect with voters,” the memo said.
Google was accused by Elon Musk in March of interfering “to help Democrats thousands of times every election season.”
Critics including President Donald Trump have accused Google of manipulating search results to hurt Republicans and even of suppressing information of the assassination attempt against Trump last year.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told The Post that the company’s “email filter protections are in place to keep our users safe.”
“They look at a variety of signals – like whether a user has previously marked an email as spam – and apply equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology,” Castaneda claimed.
A 2022 study by researchers at North Carolina State University found that Gmail flagged 59% more Republican fundraising emails as spam than Democrat ones during the leadup to the 2020 presidential election.
Backed by federal judges and the FEC, Google continues to block GOP emails added by Editor Two on
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