WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Trade

Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson alleged that Gmail uses what

the FTC calls "partisan filtering" and raised the issue in a

letter to the CEO of Google parent company Alphabet's,

Sundar Pichai, the regulator said on Thursday.

"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," the letter released by the

FTC claimed.

Google has denied similar claims from Republicans and

conservatives in the past.