RNC Files Lawsuit Against Google

WASHINGTON – Today, the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a lawsuit against Google in federal court regarding its censorship of Republican fundraising and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) emails. For nearly a year, the RNC has tracked how Google has arbitrarily throttled the RNC’s ability to communicate with Gmail users by routing nearly 100% of RNC emails to spam during key fundraising and GOTV periods like clockwork each month. Earlier this year, the RNC filed an FEC complaint after the publication of a non-partisan study which found that Gmail, Google’s email platform, routed Republican emails to “spam” at a rate approximately 820% higher than similar Democrat emails during the 2020 Election cycle, while Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo did not. 

“Enough is enough – we are suing Google for their blatant bias against Republicans. For ten months in a row, Google has sent crucial end-of-month Republican GOTV and fundraising emails to spam with zero explanation. We are committed to putting an end to this clear pattern of bias.” – RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel  

Background: 

• Every single month – for 10 months in a row – Google has systematically attacked the RNC’s email during key periods at the end of the month. This not only affects fundraising but get-out-the-vote efforts as well. 
• Since the start of Early Voting, Google suppressed over 41.5 million RNC emails, over 1 million of them were GOTV emails.  
• We have raised this issue with Google for months and worked in good faith with no resolution. On top of it all, our emails have been suppressed despite concrete changes that have improved overall performance. 
• As evidenced in the chart below, our emails go from strong inbox delivery (90-100%) down to 0% at the end of the month, every single month, like clockwork.

• The RNC has filed this suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.  
• The complaint alleges that Google is violating:  
  1. California’s Common Carrier Law; 
  2. California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act by discriminating against the RNC on the basis of political affiliation;  
  3. California’s Unfair Competition Law by conducting unlawful business practices; 
  4. California case law by interfering with perspective economic relations by suppressing our fundraising emails;  
  5. California Civil Code section 2162 prohibiting general negligence. 
• Read here for the full complaint.