No bias, just GOP incompetence

As you know, the Blue Heron Blast is strictly non partisan and I am very hesitant to take a side in any political squabble. Still I had to stifle a chortle when I read this article, Federal Judge throws out RNC case against Google.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee that accused Google of discrimination against conservatives by disproportionately sending Republican fundraising emails to Gmail users’ spam folders. 

In his Thursday ruling, U.S. District Judge Daniel Calabretta said the RNC had failed to show that Google was acting in bad faith by treating some of the RNC’s emails as spam. And the judge also said Google’s actions were fundamentally protected by Section 230, a legal provision of the Communications Decency Act that largely shields internet companies from liability for what is posted on their sites. 

The ruling represents another blow to Republicans in their ongoing quest to prove Big Tech is biased against them

It appears that Google has to filter Republican fundraising as spam, not because of its political nature but because it is so poorly crafted.

The RNC alleges that ‘for nearly a year’ Google engaged with the RNC over its concerns. Google suggested that the RNC ‘reduce the frequency of emails that it sends at the end of each month,’ informed the RNC that ‘the monthly crashing of the RNC’s inboxing rate was due to a high number of complaints,’ met with the RNC on March 29, 2022 and offered the RNC a training on August 11, 2022. In the Complaint, the RNC recounts that adopting Google’s suggestions had a ‘significantly positive impact on [email] performance,’ though they did not resolve the end-of-month issue. While the RNC may disagree with Google regarding what caused the drop in inboxing, the fact that Google engaged with the RNC for nearly a year and made suggestions that improved email performance is inconsistent with a lack of good faith.

So the problem wasn't bias, it was instead gross incompetence. Now who would have thought? Look at the luminaries in the Republican party today, Jordan, Gaetz, Greene, Gohmert, McCarthy, Tuberville, could the real problem be an intelligence deficiency?

See: Republicans seized on a study as proof of Google’s bias. Its authors say it's being misrepresented.

“Gmail isn’t biased like the way it’s being portrayed,” he said. “I’m not advocating for Gmail or anything. I’m just stating that when we take the observation out of a study, you should take all of the observations, not just cherry-pick a few and then try to use them.” 

Republicans omitted or downplayed biases against Democrats in Outlook and Yahoo Mail.