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- cross-posted to:
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A federal judge yesterday granted Google’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC), which claims that Google intentionally used Gmail’s spam filter to suppress Republicans’ fundraising emails. An order dismissing the lawsuit was issued yesterday by US District Judge Daniel Calabretta.
The RNC is seeking “recovery for donations it allegedly lost as a result of its emails not being delivered to its supporters’ inboxes,” Calabretta noted. But Google correctly argued that the lawsuit claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the judge wrote. The RNC lawsuit was filed in October 2022 in US District Court for the Eastern District of California.
“While it is a close case, the Court concludes that… the RNC has not sufficiently pled that Google acted in bad faith in filtering the RNC’s messages into Gmail users’ spam folders, and that doing so was protected by Section 230. On the merits, the Court concludes that each of the RNC’s claims fail as a matter of law for the reasons described below,” he wrote.
Calabretta, a Biden appointee, called it “concerning that Gmail’s spam filter has a disparate impact on the emails of one political party, and that Google is aware of and has not yet been able to correct this bias.” But he noted that “other large email providers have exhibited some sort of political bias” and that if Google did not filter spam, it would harm its users by subjecting them “to harmful malware or harassing messages. On the whole, Google’s spam filter, though in this instance imperfect, is not morally blameworthy.”
Calabretta gave the RNC partial leave to amend its complaint, but any new version of the lawsuit will have to be very different to move forward. “The Court grants Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss in full on the ground that it is immune from suit on these facts under Section 230 with leave to amend to establish a lack of good faith,” the order said.
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I don’t understand, according to Republicans, shouldn’t a business be allowed to do whatever it wants? If Gmail’s spam filter is so bad shouldn’t the free market create another automatically and they can all use that? /s
That only applies when it doesn’t negatively impact them. No problem is actually a problem until it affects them personally.
And rules only apply to the people they don’t like but never never ever to them.
Google literally donates to right wing politicians. What the hell are they going on about?
They tried sending out an email blast and Google’s filters took it down as spam. So naturally, they’re suing.
They sent out spam and google blocked it accordingly, marketing idiots at my work try the same all the time and get pissy when we get blocked because we’re literally sending trash spam
concerning that Gmail’s spam filter has a disparate impact on the emails of one political party, and that Google is aware of and has not yet been able to correct this bias
“Republicans don’t seem to be able to hire people who know what they’re doing” == “unfair bias against Republicans”
I guess living in a complex world (ie anything more complex than a vacuum) does put conservatives at a considerable disadvantage.
They probably make their donation emails look as spammy as possible because thier base is stupid enough to click on those malicious links.
I’ve seen some of the Trump ones and can conclude the rest probably look just as horrible and untrustworthy.
Send spam and get blocked as such, the dinosaurs in government don’t seem to understand how even the most basic of modern technology works
I still remember one of the senators helping regulate it thought the Internet was series of tubes. At least no one thought it was the spam in the can so I guess we came further.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The RNC is seeking “recovery for donations it allegedly lost as a result of its emails not being delivered to its supporters’ inboxes,” Calabretta noted.
Calabretta, a Biden appointee, called it “concerning that Gmail’s spam filter has a disparate impact on the emails of one political party, and that Google is aware of and has not yet been able to correct this bias.”
“The Court grants Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss in full on the ground that it is immune from suit on these facts under Section 230 with leave to amend to establish a lack of good faith,” the order said.
In January, the Federal Election Commission rejected a related RNC complaint that alleged Gmail’s spam filtering amounted to “illegal in-kind contributions made by Google to Biden For President and other Democrat candidates.”
The lawsuit in the US District Court “is not over” despite yesterday’s ruling, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement quoted by Courthouse News Service.
If the Republican group “were to amend its Complaint to seek injunctive relief only, the Court would likely dismiss the entire action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” the order said.
The original article contains 679 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
