Gmail’s Tax On Republican Candidates
By Nathan Leamer, Vice President
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that a key to any successful political campaign is its ability to convey its message to the public. Since the advent of radio and TV, politicians have long sought ways to talk to millions of people at a time. However, they had to get past the gatekeepers in the mainstream media who could distort or filter their message.
The Internet was supposed to change all that. In theory, campaigns could talk directly to its supporters at the push of a button — without worrying about anyone in between.
However, as these tools become more essential, a different sort of impediment has arisen. Now companies, unaccountable to the public, who control particular platforms, can affect the ability of candidates to engage their supporters.
This concern was blown out into the open when Twitter began putting their thumb on the scale, including censoring a New York Post story about Hunter Biden just hours before the 2020 Presidential Election. While Twitter catches most of the heat, in reality some of the most tangible, yet subtle, ways certain companies show their bias are by blocking and throttling the basic digital operations of Republicans.
Republican campaign operatives have long whispered about unexplainable errors and issues with sending emails to supporters. Large numbers of emails ended up in spam folders or were simply undeliverable. Now, anecdotal whispers have turned into proven data.
On March 31st, 2022, researchers from NC State released a study confirming spam filtering algorithms of major email providers, specifically Gmail, exhibited substantial political bias against Republican candidates in the months leading up to the 2020 election.
The numbers are stark. Gmail retained most Democrat candidate emails in its “inbox” tab (less than 10% marked as spam) while sending the majority of Republican candidate emails to spam folders (up to 77% marked as spam).” While not all email providers were left leaning, Gmail’s stats were certainly noticeable.
This amounts to a de facto tax on Republicans candidates who are forced to spend more resources to make up for the bias. The impact of this could be equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost fundraising, not to mention other political communications that impact millions of potential voters, possibly even suppressing GOTV efforts.
The significant swing to one side of the political aisle should be of interest to election watchdogs. If one party’s TV and radio ads were stifled, there would rightfully be inquiries. The spam filtering bias by Gmail should be no different.
Recently Republicans in the Senate and House have introduced the Political BIAS Emails Act, a legislative proposal to improve transparency and accountability on email providers. It calls for much needed oversight to ensure all voters are able to engage with political candidates through this important medium.
After weeks of denial, Gmail is finally responding to the numerous calls for reform. They recently announced a new pilot program that could “help improve inboxing rates for political bulk senders and provide more transparency into email deliverability.”
At the very least, they’ve finally acknowledged something needs to change.
The internet dominates the political discussion today. Its impact on elections can’t be overstated. Minimizing bias and mitigating concerns of integrity are important to restoring trust in the election process. It’s about time these companies move from gatekeepers to honest brokers. It’s the least they can do to ensure fairness towards candidates and voters alike.
Nathan Leamer served the past several years as Policy Advisor to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Before working at the Commission, he was a Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute where he managed the institute’s government relations and wrote extensively on emerging technology, intellectual property and privacy. Prior to these roles, he worked as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill.
