Gmail filtering case reportedly dismissed by Judge following complaints by the RNC. The judge in charge of the case just ruled that Gmail does not discriminate against Republicans.
Gmail Filtering Case Dismissed
After several months the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a lawsuit against tech company Google over reportedly applying filters that helped promote political bias, the case in question is now officially closed, the Washington Post reports.
A federal judge has just dismissed what was dubbed a “close case” just because “the RNC [had] initially not sufficiently pled that Google acted in bad faith in filtering the RNC’s messages into Gmail users’ spam folders.”
The US District Judge, Daniel J. Calabretta, also noted in regard to the case that the use of spam filtering by Gmail is reportedly protected by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
Section 230 just as you should know protects “interactive computer service providers,” such as Gmail, from lawsuits that are related to decisions to block and screen offensive material. And while many users have called for clearer guidance and even the rewriting of this very section from the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which is inclusive of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in this very example, it served to protect the email provider.
Google’s Pilot Scheme
Despite initial claims that there was indeed no form of bias and requests to dismiss the case, Google however did launch a pilot scheme to enable political parties to opt in to bypass filters and even deliver emails directly to the inboxes of Gmail users.
The scheme in question as you should note was initially introduced in time for the 2022 US election period, but the plug was however pulled just a couple of months later. It was also reported that the RNC at the time did not sign up to take part in the said program.
Google’s Stand Regarding Message Spam Filtering
Google’s José Castañeda in the early parts of this year, told TechRadar Pro: “We will keep investing in spam-filtering technologies that protect people from unwanted messages while still allowing senders to reach the inboxes of users who want to see those messages.”
We then asked Castañeda to comment on the result of the said case. We also gave the RNC an opportunity to easily and effectively provide feedback, but neither of them has responded as yet.
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