Study Finds Gmail More Likely To Label Republican Emails As Spam, And Ronny Jackson Finds A Good Thing To Tweet About

Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson, who represents Texas’ 13th district, tweeted on Tuesday about a study that found Republican fundraising emails purportedly end up in spam folders more often than Democratic fundraising emails, leading many to meme about politics and emails.

Way to announce you don't know how spam filters work. How you ever became a doctor is beyond me. pic.twitter.com/yJ5Uzik1p4

— D Villella ❄️ (@dvillella) May 10, 2022

The study, which found Gmail was 50 percent more likely to label a Republican email than a Democratic email as spam (but Outlook and Yahoo are more likely to label Democratic emails as spam) was put out by North Carolina State University. Google attributes the bias against certain political emails to algorithms that respond to user behavior: If users flag a certain sender as spam, the email service will automatically label future emails that way. The study found that if the algorithms are controlled for, the bias decreases by a lot but is still there.

Since we both monitor election interference and send out a bunch of emails, we feel like we can say from a position of authority that if your emails keep triggering Gmail's spam filters, the problem is your emails, not election interference. https://t.co/CYY5cZVmeJ

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) May 10, 2022

Many social media users joked that if Gmail is flagging Republican fundraising emails as spam, then it is working correctly — because those emails, for them, are actually spam.

republican: why do all my emails to my voters get sent to spam???

the emails: DONATE NOW OR DEMOCRACY WILL DIE! ARE YOU ON TRUMP'S SIDE OR ARE YOU GOING TO BURN IN HELL FOREVER?! CLICK THIS LINK AND IMMDIATELY LOSE FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! https://t.co/dBXc0KSOcC

— Ace Spinellius (@farcialities) May 10, 2022

All my Gmail accounts are set to spam. pic.twitter.com/iwdWKShKTb

— Radical Left Lunatic 🇺🇦🌻 (@JarankaK) May 10, 2022

Google’s CEO desperately not trying not to laugh and say “they’re spam” when congressman asks why Republican emails go to junk folders

— Josh Constine 📶🔥 (@JoshConstine) July 29, 2020

Some criticized the Republican party’s email strategy in general, calling it "spammy."

Mr. Jackson,

It's called "SPAM"

Perhaps if the @GOP would contract w/a professional service instead of CC'ing half the country, your emails wouldn't get marked as SPAM. pic.twitter.com/RJvq9nxeku

— Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ (@padresj) May 10, 2022

Fancy that, even the @gop email I received just moments ago says they sent it to me 34 times prior.

Not to mention I’ve opted out at least that many times… but here it is, still coming to me every day. #GOPHypocrisy #gopgmail #gmail #gopspam #spam https://t.co/2jEKPJmcH6 pic.twitter.com/3mTXZ5BBN0

— De💀d Hours – SENTIENCE IS NOW ON ZOOP! (@HiMyNameisTophs) May 10, 2022

Jackson, who was formerly the official Presidential Physician for Donald Trump and Barack Obama, started in politics when Trump nominated him to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jackson’s nomination ended up fizzling out in part due to what a Pentagon report shared about his excessive drinking, drug-taking and partying while traveling with the President as his doctor. Jackson then ran for Congress, endorsed by Trump, and won.

Email fundraising is an important part of modern politics, and the rivalry between Republicans and Big Tech is an important part of the party’s narrative going into the 2022 midterms. It’s likely there will be more to come on this issue.