(Zero Hedge)—A Republican consulting firm is warning that Google’s Gmail platform is disproportionately flagging Republican fundraising messages as spam while allowing similar Democratic solicitations to reach inboxes.
In a memo to clients obtained by The New York Post, Targeted Victory – whose roster includes the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee – described the filtering pattern as “serious and troubling,” saying it continued as recently as June and July. The firm said emails containing links to the Republican fundraising platform WinRed were, “in many cases, sending them directly to spam,” while identical test messages with links to the Democratic platform ActBlue were “delivered without issue.”
“If Gmail is allowed to quietly suppress WinRed links while giving ActBlue a free pass, it will continue to tilt the playing field in ways that voters never see, but campaigns will feel every single day,” the memo said. Video demonstrations of the firm’s testing were included.
The allegations come despite previous scrutiny of Gmail’s email filtering practices. In 2023, the Federal Election Commission dismissed a Republican National Committee complaint alleging political bias in Gmail’s spam algorithms. A year earlier, a federal judge dismissed an RNC lawsuit making similar claims.
Critics, including President Donald J. Trump, have long accused Google of political interference, alleging that the company has manipulated search results to disadvantage Republicans and, in one instance, suppressed news of an assassination attempt against Mr. Trump. In March, Elon Musk wrote on social media that Google had interfered “to help Democrats thousands of times every election season.”
Google has denied wrongdoing. “Email filter protections are in place to keep our users safe,” José Castañeda, a company spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday. “They look at a variety of signals – like whether a user has previously marked an email as spam – and apply equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology.”
Research has previously identified differences in filtering. A 2022 study by North Carolina State University found that Gmail flagged 59 percent more Republican fundraising emails as spam than Democratic ones during the lead-up to the 2020 election. “We observed that the [spam filtering algorithms] of different email services indeed exhibit biases towards different political affiliations,” the researchers wrote at the time.
According to the Targeted Victory memo, the firm first contacted Google about the issue on June 30 after receiving complaints from clients. Google, the memo said, initially “deflected” the concern by “blaming local settings” for the filtering behavior.
The firm’s tests involved sending identical emails to Gmail accounts, with the only difference being a WinRed or an ActBlue donation link. “The only difference between the two emails was the link,” the memo said. “ActBlue delivered. WinRed got flagged. That is not a coincidence.”
“This held true even for major accounts, including Trump and Elise Stefanik links, compared to DNC links,” the memo continued. After what it described as weeks of back-and-forth, Google’s support team acknowledged that WinRed links were deemed “suspicious” and, in some cases, flagged with a red banner warning that the message was “potentially suspicious or unsafe,” according to a screenshot dated July 22.
“This should alarm every campaign and committee that relies on email to connect with voters,” the memo concluded.
Why One Survival Food Company Shines Above the Rest
Let’s be real. “Prepper Food” or “Survival Food” is generally awful. The vast majority of companies that push their cans, bags, or buckets desperately hope that their customers never try them and stick them in the closet or pantry instead. Why? Because if the first time they try them is after the crap hits the fan, they’ll be too shaken to call and complain about the quality.
It’s true. Most long-term storage food is made with the cheapest possible ingredients with limited taste and even less nutritional value. This is why they tout calories so much. Sure, they provide calories but does anyone really want to go into the apocalypse with food their family can’t stand?
This is what prompted the Llewellyns to launch Heaven’s Harvest. They bought survival food from multiple companies and determined they couldn’t imagine being stuck in an extended emergency with such low-quality food. They quickly discovered that freeze drying food for long-term storage doesn’t have to mean sacrificing flavor, consistency, or nutrition.
Their ingredients are all-American. In fact, they’re locally sourced and all-natural! This allows their products to be the highest quality on the market, so good that their customers often break open a bag in a pinch to eat because they want to, not just because they have to due to an emergency.
At Heaven’s Harvest, their only focus is amazing food. They don’t sell bugout bags, solar chargers, or multitools. They have one mission – feeding Americans in times of crisis.
What they DO offer is the ability for people to thrive in times of greatest need. On top of long-term storage food, they offer seeds to help Americans for the truly long-term. They want them to grow their own food if possible which is why they offer only Heirloom, Non-GMO, Non-Hybrid, Open-Pollinated seeds so their customers can build permanent food security on their own property.
