This week, the Trump administration reportedly continued its fight against the specter of any sort of leftwing bias in Big Tech by questioning Google over whether Gmail censors emails sent by Republicans.
Axios reports that Andrew Ferguson, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, warned Google not to “filter or suppress” emails that were sent by Republicans over Gmail. Republicans have gotten it into their heads that the tech giant is secretly funneling red-state communiques directly into the trash folder. This is part of a long-running concern on the part of some GOP lawmakers, who seem to feel that Gmail suppresses their fundraising and get-out-the-vote emails. In a letter seen by Axios, Ferguson warned Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, that he was taking such concerns seriously.
“I write due to recent reporting that suggests Alphabet’s administration of Gmail is designed to have partisan effects, and accordingly, to notify you that Alphabet may be engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices,” Ferguson said in the letter. “I write to inform you of your obligations under the FTC Act,” he said. “Any act or practice inconsistent with these obligations could lead to an FTC investigation and potential enforcement action.”
So far, Google’s response to this has basically been: Look, guys, if your emails are being marked as spam, that’s not really our fault. “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,” Jenn Crider, a Google spokesperson, told Axios. “This applies equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology,” she said, adding: “We will review this letter and look forward to engaging constructively.” Gizmodo reached out to Google for more information.
The RNC filed a lawsuit in 2022 accusing Gmail of bias. However, the Federal Election Commission probed the complaints and ultimately dismissed them, Axios notes.
The long-running complaint from conservatives that Big Tech is out to get them never really held much water, but it seems even more dubious now that large parts of Silicon Valley (see the crypto industry, Elon Musk, et al) have thrown their weight behind Trump. Still, the dream of finding a Vast Liberal Tech Conspiracy continues, as earlier this week, high-ranking Congressional Republicans also announced their intent to root out bias at Wikipedia. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
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