Spam filters from Google are gearing up to block fewer emails and it’s an intentional decision. A new pilot program from Google, recently approved by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), would exempt certain FEC-registered political groups from getting caught up in a spam filter. The program would apply to political action committees, candidate committees, and party committees.
If your inbox looks anything like mine, this means that a whole lot more campaign emails will be reaching your eyes. At first blush, allowing more of these already-frequent messages to come through seems of little benefit, but the program was introduced in the name of fairness. The idea came about in response to a study that showed right-wing candidates being flagged for spam more frequently than left-wing candidates.
If users don’t want to receive the messages, they can manually flag the message as spam or unsubscribe from future emails. Since this is just a pilot program, there’s no guarantee that this feature will be applied to all users and feedback will be essential in shaping how the program evolves.
So while this program has been fully cleared by the FEC, the response from other parties has been less than enthusiastic. The FEC itself said it received a record number of public comments on the proposal, with Commissioner Ellen Weintraub noting that, “we had one, maybe two comments that thought it was a good idea.”
In addition to public disapproval, the idea has spurred a display of political bipartisanship, also in disapproval. Both representatives from the Democratic National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee oppose rolling out the idea further.
This rare agreement from both sides of the aisle has occurred not just because no one is interested in a policy change that increases the amount of spam messages they receive, but also because it would encourage campaigns to use the more frustrating tactics that would have otherwise been caught up in a spam filter.
Given the initial outcry, it remains to be seen whether or not Google will try to roll this program out further. They’re still planning on bringing it to more users, so more feedback is on the way, but with election season fully underway at this point, they’ll have to make a decision one way or the other quickly.
About the Author: Chris Mack
Chris is a Marketing Manager at Extract with experience in product development, data analysis, and both traditional and digital marketing. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University and has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. A passionate marketer, Chris strives to make complex ideas more accessible to those around him in a compelling way.