Subj : Republican National Committee loses legal claim that Gmail marked
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri Aug 02 2024 16:30:05

Republican National Committee loses legal claim that Gmail marked fundraising 
emails as spam

Date:
Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:17:10 +0000

Description:
Judge ruled Google had not broken Californias Unfair Competition Law 
concerning RNC emails.

FULL STORY
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) has lost a legal campaign claiming 
Google acted illegally when filtering campaign emails . 

California federal Judge Daniel Calabretta ruled the states Unfair 
Competition Law did not cover Googles alleged conduct, and the case was 
dismissed with prejudice, meaning that whilst the ruling can be appealed, it 
cannot be brought to another court. 

The RNC primarily claimed its campaign emails were filtered into spam at a 
much higher rate than those of its Democrat opponents, resulting in an 
indirect illegal corporate contribution to Democrat candidates, as 
nonmonetary contributions must be counted towards overall contribution 
limits. Unfair but not illegal 

Judge Calabretta acknowledged while Google may not have acted fairly, the 
company credibly supported its claim the spam filter existed for commercial 
reasons and therefore was not classified as a campaign contribution, 

The RNC may be correct that Googles alleged conduct (if proven) is unfair in 
a colloquial sense, the RNC is unable to point to any legislative policy that 
is implicated by the alleged conduct, the ruling stated. 

The judge found the most convincing demonstration of Google acting unjustly 
to be that the mass diversion of emails stopped once the RNC filed the suit. 
However, technical considerations may have played a part in this change, and 
Judge Calabretta did not find legislative policy violations, or sufficient 
harm to Gmail users. 

The news marks the second time an RNC claim against Google was dismissed in 
court, following a similar 2023 suit of discriminatory spam filtering , after 
failing to prove Google acted in bad faith. Likewise, a Federal Elections 
Commission complaint was filed and lost after the commission found no reason 
to believe Googles algorithm was weighed against Republicans. 

Google, which has consistently denied political bias in its algorithm, 
welcomed the ruling. The RNC has not yet offered comment. 

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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/republican-national-committee-loses-legal-claim-
that-gmail-marked-fundraising-emails-as-spam


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