Judge dismisses Republican lawsuit against Google over Gmail’s spam filtering

On Wednesday, a California judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Republican internet campaign committee against Google over Gmail’s spam filtering.

The lawsuit, filed in August 2020 by the Committee to Defend the President, accused Google of political censorship after emails sent by the committee’s political action committee, Women Vote Trump, were routinely sent to Gmail users’ “spam” folders. The committee claimed that emails sent to Gmail users in support of President Donald Trump were labeled as spam, while emails supporting his democratic opponents were not.

In her ruling, Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California noted that the committee had “failed to plausibly allege any unlawful discrimination” and dismissed the suit. She also noted that Google’s email filtering practices were not “animated by partisan or political considerations.”

The Committee to Defend the President argued that Google was politically motivated in its email filtering, labeling all emails from them as spam while similarly-worded emails from the Biden campaign were not. The judge disagreed, noting that emails sent by both campaigns contained trigger words – like “donate” – that were likely directed to the spam folder.

The judge also noted that Google’s algorithm for detecting spam is consistent; all emails with certain words are sent to the spam folder regardless of whether they are sent by the Trump or Biden campaigns. The judge also cited the equal access clause of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which prohibits discrimination against users or content providers based on their political or ideological views.

The judge’s ruling is a blow to the Committee to Defend the President, which sought $500,000 in damages from Google for allegedly depriving the Women Vote Trump PAC of much-needed funds. The committee has not yet stated whether it will appeal the ruling.

In the meantime, the ruling serves as a reminder that email filtering systems are designed to protect users from deceptive messages – not to discriminate against certain political parties or views.