Gmail prepares a filter so that political campaigns do not end up as spam
For politicians, email is not always a useful campaign or outreach tool. Due to the nature of their content, these messages usually end up directly in spam folders.
In the United States, after receiving complaints from some sectors, Google is working on a system with which the deployment of these digital campaigns could be regulated, establishing a series of criteria so as not to be treated as spam, without restricting the freedom of users to unsubscribe.
Google responds to political pressure to regulate how spam is filtered in Gmail during campaigns
Referring to a document to which they managed to have access, the scoop of this initiative was released by Axios. The report notes that Google has asked the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) to authorize a program that could prevent campaign emails from ending up in spam folders.
This initiative is based on the criticism that has fallen on Google recently, regarding the handling of these filters. Mainly conservative politicians charge that its algorithms unfairly target the content they spread across their services, accusing Gmail of filtering more GOP-linked campaign and fundraising emails into spam.
It was precisely that North American party that presented a bill a few weeks ago that mandates platforms to share how their filtering techniques work, also defining the classification of campaign emails as spam as an illegal act, unless a user does so. expressly request.
As reported by Axios, Google requested the green light to start a pilot plan together with «authorized candidate committees, political party committees, and leadership political action committees registered with the FEC”.
Implementation of this initiative would mean that campaign emails from such groups would be exempt from spam detection, as long as they do not violate Gmail’s policies on phishing, malware, or illegal content.
Under the proposed modality, when users receive an email from a campaign for the first time, a “highlight” notification will appear, asking them if they wish to continue receiving them, while retaining the possibility of choosing not to receive subsequent emails.
According to a North Carolina State University study, Gmail was more likely to mark Republican fundraising emails as spam during the 2020 campaign, compared to Outlook and Yahoo. In response, Google pointed out that these messages often ended up as spam, because the users themselves marked the messages as spam.
Although this mechanism is tailored to the US law and political system, if implemented as an official feature of Gmail, it would set a precedent for such regulations in other parts of the world.
