Republicans hit Google with FEC complaint over Gmail censorship of fundraising emails

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans are calling on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate alleged censorship of conservatives by Google’s email platform, Gmail, after a study showed it allows the vast majority of emails from left-wing politicians to land in a user’s inbox while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates are marked as spam.

The Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) have filed a joint complaint with the Federal Election Commission to investigate the claims made in a new study by North Carolina State University that Gmail suppresses conservative candidates’ emails at a significantly higher rate than liberal ones.

GOOGLE’S GMAIL CENSORSHIP COST GOP CANDIDATES $2b SINCE 2019, REPUBLICANS SAY, CITING NEW STUDY

Gmail "retained the majority of left-wing candidate emails in inbox (< 10.12% marked as spam) while sent the majority of right-wing candidate emails to the spam folder (up to 77.2% marked as spam)," the March 31 study found. 

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, NRSC Chairman Sen. Rick Scott, and NRCC Chairman Rep. Tom Emmer issued a joint statement accusing Big Tech of unfairly shaping the political playing field.

"As midterm elections approach, we are formally calling on the FEC to investigate the extent and intentionality of Google’s censorship of Republican fundraising efforts," read the statement provided to Fox News Digital. "This is a financially devastating example of Silicon Valley tech companies unfairly shaping the political playing field to benefit their preferred far-left candidates. 

"Companies like Google don’t think you have the right to hear both sides: they’d rather make the decision for you," it read.

Based on the study, Google's Gmail cost Republican candidates over $2 billion in donations since 2019 by flagging most fundraising emails as spam, according to research the three Republican groups shared exclusively with Fox News Digital earlier this month.

Google has rejected the university study's findings. 

"Political affiliation has absolutely no bearing on mail classifications in Gmail and we've debunked this suggestion, which has surfaced periodically from across the political spectrum, for many years," a Google spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital after the study's release. 

"Mail classifications in Gmail automatically adjust to match Gmail users' preferences and actions. Gmail users can move messages to spam, or to any other category," the Google spokesperson continued. "Gmail automatically adjusts the classifications of particular emails according to these user actions." 

Conservative candidates raised $737 million on Republican fundraising platform WinRed from Gmail users in 2019 and 2020. Because, according to the study, just 32% of fundraising emails were delivered, the Republicans estimate they missed out on $1.5 billion in contributions during the 2020 election cycle. 

So far during the 2021-2022 election cycle, Republicans have raised $249 million from Gmail users. The GOP committees estimate that their candidates have therefore missed out on $529 million in contributions due to Gmail's filtering algorithms. 

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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter Wednesday to Google CEO Sundar Pichai demanding the company "take immediate corrective action in response to these findings." 

Hawley’s letter asked Google to answer several questions, including, "What is Google’s explanation for this pattern of bias?" and "Why does the bias against Republicans increase as an election draws nearer?" The letter also asks Google to explain what steps it has since taken to review its filtering algorithms for "implicit or explicit political bias."

Fox News Digital's Peter Hasson and Brian Flood contributed reporting.