Google scraps Gmail ‘blacklist’ that labeled GOP fundraiser emails ‘dangerous’
Google Removes Blacklist Flagging Republican Fundraising Emails as Spam
Google has decided to eliminate Gmail’s use of a “blacklist” that was identifying Republican fundraising emails as “dangerous” and diverting them to spam folders, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Last month, The Post reported that Gmail was marking emails containing links to the GOP fundraising platform WinRed as unsafe, preventing them from reaching inboxes and labeling them with a red warning that said “seems dangerous.”
Meanwhile, emails from ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform, were being delivered without issue, as per reports from GOP consulting firm Targeted Victory.
Republicans have long accused Google of suppressing their fundraising emails, alleging a broader anti-conservative bias within the company. In July, the Missouri attorney general sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other tech companies, questioning whether AI chatbots were biased against President Trump.
A study conducted in 2022 by researchers at North Carolina State University found that Gmail was flagging 59% more Republican fundraising emails as spam compared to Democratic ones leading up to the 2020 election.
Targeted Victory discovered that WinRed’s emails were being flagged due to Google relying on the Netherlands-based firm SURBL BV for intelligence and reputation services. SURBL maintains datasets used to scan and block emails suspected of spam, adding them to a blacklist.
After WinRed contacted SURBL about the bias, the firm responded on August 20, stating they would remove WinRed from the blacklist. However, they did not provide an explanation for the initial blocking.
Following The Post’s inquiry on August 13, Google confirmed that it had stopped using SURBL’s data in Gmail’s filtering.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda stated, “After a review found that our own advanced protections are the most effective way to protect users, we stopped incorporating SURBL as a signal.”
Furthermore, Castañeda emphasized that Gmail’s spam filtering is applied equally to all users regardless of political affiliation, using multiple signals to detect spammy emails.
WinRed CEO Ryan Lyk criticized Google for relying on a foreign entity to influence American political campaigns, calling it foreign interference.
In response to WinRed, SURBL advised following best practices, but WinRed officials were confused by references to a Canadian anti-spam law that did not apply to US companies.
Targeted Victory first raised the issue of Gmail flagging GOP fundraising emails as spam in June, informing Google of the problem. It took several weeks of communication before Google’s support team acknowledged the issue with WinRed links.
Despite accusations of political bias, Google has denied any wrongdoing. Efforts by Republicans to address these concerns have not been successful, with previous lawsuits and complaints being dismissed.
