Judge rips apart RNC's law suit vs Gmail filtering out Republican fund raising

[thewayne]

The RNC filed a lawsuit against Google for Gmail sending RNC fundraising mail addressed to Gmail users directly to spam folders, saying that they had an anti-conservative bias. Of seven claims they made, the judge thoroughly squashed five of them, and is letting the RNC amend two. However, the basic underpinnings of the two claims were knocked away and they'll have to be significantly readdressed to be refiled.

Here is perhaps my favorite utterance from the judge. The RNC claimed that Google committed fraud, I guess for failing to deliver the solicitation mail to the mailing list inboxes? The judge said: "The RNC lacks standing to bring the fraud claim because it is not a Gmail user, ... The RNC uses Salesforce and a separate email-delivery platform called Everest."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Plus, Gmail is a free service! How could Google defraud me if I'm not a business-class customer paying for it? Yes, they do have a business tier.

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that Google might buy a business-class subscription and start spraying their Google email address base direct that way?

Oh, and here's another beauty of a quote: Google previously ran a pilot program that let political emails bypass the Gmail spam filter. Google said in a January 2023 court filing that "the RNC has chosen not to participate in Google's FEC-approved Pilot Program."

And here's a comment for the article from a mail server administrator: "Speaking as a mailserver admin: more GOP fundraiser emails wind up in the spamtrap because the GOP uses more spammer tactics, more aggressively. I've seen everything from spoofed to and from lines to entire messages in the subject line to white text on white background to bayes poison to substituting letters for numbers to try to evade money-related spam filters to you name it.

A brand new install of spamassassin with default filters only will also block far more Republican fundraiser emails than DNC ones, for exactly this reason... And the disparity only gets worse if you let it train its Bayes filter (which, quick reminder, the GOP sometimes attempts to poison)."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/judge-tears-apart-republican-lawsuit-alleging-bias-in-gmail-spam-filter/

Comments

[silveradept]

One would think the Republicans would recognize the superiority of machine decisions that couldn't have any bias in them and work to bring their communications in line with what the machine will allow through, but no. They'll claim someone's got their thumb on the scales and is deliberately filtering them out, even though when they get the levers of power, they're not exactly subtle about putting their entire hands on the scale and pushing. So, they deserve to be treated as the scammers using scummy spam tactics that they are repeatedly proven to be.

[thewayne]

The RNC knows that, with its current ideology, that its base is literally dying off.  They're grasping at straws and Cheat To Win is the best bet they've got.

[silveradept]

We know that, they know that, so why doesn't The Media treat them as such? Are they too afraid of acknowledging a reality where they can't pretend there are two sides to all issues and this don't have to take any stances on anymore?

In any case, it's still good they're getting filtered out for their tactical decisions.

[thewayne]

My opinion: news is about reporting things, not about informing the people, and far too many people look beyond the story for more information.  So someone comes on a talk show and offers their "opinion" that RNC philosophy is broken and ruining the country, a Republican talking head immediately pops up and calls them a socialist pinko scum etc. and Twitter is flooded with similar comments.  There no longer is political discourse, nor quality news ANALYSIS where we need it.