U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson has raised concerns that Gmail may be unfairly filtering political messages, disproportionately blocking Republican emails while allowing similar Democratic ones to reach users’ inboxes. In a letter to Google parent company Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Ferguson warned that such practices, if true, could violate FTC regulations and potentially trigger an investigation.
Responding to the claims, a Google spokesperson stressed that Gmail’s spam filters are applied equally, regardless of political affiliation. The company explained that its algorithms rely on objective signals such as whether users mark a message as spam or whether a sender has a history of bulk mailing. Google added that it would review the FTC’s letter and engage “constructively” with the regulator.
Accusations of political bias in tech platforms have been long-standing among Republicans, despite repeated denials from major companies. A previous lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee accusing Google of deliberately filtering GOP emails into spam folders was dismissed by a U.S. judge. Still, the FTC’s latest intervention underscores the growing political scrutiny on how big tech manages digital communications ahead of key election cycles.
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