Andrew Ferguson, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Trade Commission, recently expressed concern that “Alphabet’s administration of Gmail is designed to have partisan effects.”

In a letter addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Ferguson pointed to a recent story in the New York Post describing complaints by Targeted Victory (a consulting and PR firm that’s worked with the Republican National Committee and Elon Musk’s X) claiming that Gmail flags emails linking to the Republican fundraising platform WinRed as spam, without doing the same to emails linking to the Democratic platform ActBlue.

“My understanding from recent reporting is that Gmail’s spam filters routinely block messages from reaching consumers when those messages come from Republican senders but fail to block similar messages sent by Democrats,” Ferguson wrote.

He warned Alphabet that if Gmail’s filters “keep Americans from receiving speech they expect, or donating as they see fit, the filters may harm American consumers and may violate the FTC Act’s prohibition of unfair or deceptive trade practices,” adding this could lead to “an FTC investigation and potential enforcement action.”

In response, a Google spokesperson told Axios that Gmail’s spam filters “look at a variety of objective signals – like whether people mark a particular email as spam, or if a particular ad agency is sending a high volume of emails that are often marked by people as spam,” and they said the company applies this approach “equally to all senders, regardless of political ideology.”

The spokesperson also said, “We will review this letter and look forward to engaging constructively.”

Conservatives frequently complain that they are being censored or otherwise treated unfairly by digital platforms, including Gmail. In 2023, the Federal Election Commission dismissed a complaint from Republicans over Gmail’s spam filters, and a federal court also dismissed an RNC lawsuit with similar complaints. (The RNC seems to be reviving that lawsuit.)

Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked the FTC’s investigation into the left-leaning group Media Matters over its research into antisemitic content on X, describing the investigation as “a retaliatory act.”

The court has blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into Media Matters, the media nonprofit that previously published research showing that ads appeared on X alongside neo-Nazi and other antisemitic content. In 2023, Elon Musk’s X filed a lawsuit against the media watchdog following an advertiser exodus. It accused Media Matters of “knowingly and maliciously manufactur[ing] side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white national fringe content.” Just this May, the FTC started looking into whether the nonprofit violated antitrust laws by allegedly colluding with advertising and advocacy groups to boycott X.

In June, Media Matters sued the FTC, accusing it of unfairly targeting the group in retaliation for past criticisms of X. “The Federal Trade Commission seeks to punish Media Matters for its journalism and speech in exposing matters of substantial public concern — including how X.com has enabled and profited from extremist content that proliferated after Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter,” the group said at the time. Now, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan has granted a preliminary injunction in the nonprofit’s favor.

Sooknanan has agreed with the group that the FTC’s investigation is “a retaliatory act” and has noted that it is “likely to succeed on its First Amendment retaliation claim.” She wrote in her decision that such probes would deter other reporters from speaking again. “Indeed, the FTC’s [investigation] has had its intended effect.” Apparently, because of the probe, Media Matters has “decided against pursuing certain stories about the FTC, Chairman Ferguson, and Mr. Musk.”

“The court’s ruling demonstrates the importance of fighting over folding, which far too many are doing when confronted with intimidation from the Trump administration,” Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters, told The New York Times. “We will continue to stand up and fight for the First Amendment rights that protect every American.” As the publication notes, courts had also blocked investigations into the group by the attorneys general in Texas and Missouri. Musk’s lawsuits against the nonprofit, however, are still ongoing.