SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - Google is defending its spam-filtering technology as it fights a lawsuit brought by the Republican National Committee that complains its political emails are sent to recipients' spam folders.
Google filed a motion to dismiss the RNC's lawsuit Jan. 23 in California federal court, starting its argument with the statement "Nobody likes spam." The RNC sends fundraising requests from its email addresses, which are not registered to Google's Gmail, to Gmail users at the end of months.
The RNC also says Google kept its Get-Out-The-Vote emails out of recipients' inboxes, even though they had signed up for them.
"From that unremarkable fact, the RNC infers an elaborate, politically motivated plot by Google 'to secretly suppress the political speech and income of one major political party.' The RNC is wrong," the motion says.
"Gmail's spam-filtering policies apply equally to emails from all senders, whether they are politically affiliated or not. Indeed, the Federal Election Commission has already rejected the RNC's political-discrimination theory finding that Gmail filters spam 'to enhance the value of the Gmail product,' not 'to influence any election for federal office.'"
The RNC claims millions of emails are sent to spam folders during pivotal points in election fundraising and community building. It filed suit last year weeks before November's Election Day, calling "the timing of Google's most egregious filtering... particularly damning."
"It doesn't matter whether the email is about donating, voting or community outreach," the suit says. "And i doesn't matter whether the emails are sent to people who requested them.
"This discrimination has been ongoing for about 10 months - despite the RNC's best efforts to work with Google."
Google says the RNC failed to participate in a pilot program last year that would have allowed its emails to avoid spam-filtering.
"Instead, it now seeks to blame Google based on a theory of political bias that is both illogical and contrary to the facts alleged in its own complaint," Google's motion says.
Google is represented by attorneys at Perkins Coie, including Sunita Bali.