Gmail Launches Pilot To Keep Campaign Emails Out of Spam (axios.com) 58
Google is launching a pilot program to keep emails from political campaigns from going to users' spam folders this week, the company told Axios. From the report: Google asked the Federal Election Commission in June if a program that would let campaigns emails bypass spam filters, instead giving users the option to move them to spam first, would be legal under campaign finance laws. Despite hundreds of negative comments submitted to the FEC arguing against it, the FEC approved the program in August. Eligible committees, abiding by security requirements and best practices as outlined by Google, can now register to participate.
Google has come under fire that its algorithms unfairly target conservative content across its services, and that its Gmail service filters more Republican fundraising and campaign emails to spam. This is partly based on a study from North Carolina State University, though its authors say it has been misconstrued. "We expect to begin the pilot with a small number of campaigns from both parties and will test whether these changes improve the user experience, and provide more certainty for senders during this election period," Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, told Axios. "We will continue to listen and respond to feedback as the pilot progresses." He added: "During the pilot, users will be in control through a more prominent unsubscribe button."
Google has come under fire that its algorithms unfairly target conservative content across its services, and that its Gmail service filters more Republican fundraising and campaign emails to spam. This is partly based on a study from North Carolina State University, though its authors say it has been misconstrued. "We expect to begin the pilot with a small number of campaigns from both parties and will test whether these changes improve the user experience, and provide more certainty for senders during this election period," Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, told Axios. "We will continue to listen and respond to feedback as the pilot progresses." He added: "During the pilot, users will be in control through a more prominent unsubscribe button."
this is an PAID EMAIL from TRUMP for 2024 (Score:2)
this is an PAID EMAIL from TRUMP for 2024
Don't forget to vote trump.
No I don't want any of this shit.
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this is an PAID EMAIL from TRUMP for 2024 Don't forget to vote trump.
No I don't want any of this shit.
Don't worry. From what I hear, Donald Trump would never PAY for such a thing.
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But he's not above letting others pay for these things on his behalf. Send donations now so that he can continue asking for donations!
Voting strategy from Scott Adams (Score:2, Interesting)
this is an PAID EMAIL from TRUMP for 2024
Don't forget to vote trump.
No I don't want any of this shit.
Slightly off topic, but Scott Adams has put forth the proposal [scottadamssays.com] that everyone should pivot to being a single-issue voter, and that single issue should be the fentanyl epidemic.
His point is that we don't seem to be able to get good leadership overall, so a bunch of voters should get together and demand action on a single issue. Since most elections are won by slim margins, if enough people across the country vote the single issue, we might be able to get it fixed. Here in NH, I believe the senate race is typi
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OTOH if your people solve the problem by legalizing everything, thereby undercutting black marketers and causing the drug supply to become safer (i.e. correctly labeled and measured), we could ally at that time.
The only way to make fentanyl safer is to make it not fentanyl. It isn't insanely dangerous because of impurities. The more pure it is, the more dangerous it is.
(But I agree that it's a very bad choice for a single issue campaign, because pretty much every plan to "solve" the problem will amount to more War On Some Drugs, and we already know that's far, far worse than the drugs themselves.)
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The fentanyl issue is a pretty good one to go for.
I understand why single-issue voting can be effective, but if I made a list of the top 100 political issues I care about, fentanyl wouldn't make the list.
It's something that the government has the power to fix
So what is the obvious fix?
Re:Voting strategy from Scott Adams (Score:5, Insightful)
The Feds need to just end the farce that is "The War on Drugs" and start rolling back all the civil rights abusing legislation that was passed to support it. They aren't any closer to ending drug abuse than when they started this nonsense in 1914.
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Slightly off topic, but Scott Adams has put forth the proposal [scottadamssays.com] that everyone should pivot to being a single-issue voter, and that single issue should be the fentanyl epidemic.
Wow that sounds kind of nice, because fentanyl is really bad and all, but...
It also sounds like one quick-ass way to fascism. Why don't all the voters just ignore fascism for a while and vote on this completely independent issue, which is already clearly managed by laws we have in place, it's just not being addressed well due to severe lack of funding?
Democracy will be a hell of a lot harder to win back than it is to keep. Focus instead on fighting fascism, and fight those fucking grifters who keep taking m
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Scott Adams kind of went off the deep end into the Trump pool.
Voting for single issues can work for some local elections like your town select board, but it's not going to work at the national level. If your options are "guy who doesn't have the best plan for some fringe issue" vs "guy who has a plan for fringe issue, but also doesn't believe in democracy or civil rights", then you're working against your own interests long term by voting for the second one because you may not even get the chance to vote f
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Slightly off topic, but Scott Adams has put forth the proposal [scottadamssays.com] that everyone should pivot to being a single-issue voter, and that single issue should be the fentanyl epidemic.
I propose that all the Fentanyl be administered to politicians.
The government has the power to fix the crisis? (Score:2)
Really? What are you suggesting?
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The rule of thumb: when asked for your vote, say you're a single-issue voter who will vote for the candidate with the best plan for solving the fentanyl issue. Not platitudes, not "I will look into it", but an actual plan. If a candidate can not outline a plan with specific steps, explain that your vote will go another candidate.
In the long run, the single issue that would have a far greater effect on the country, is voting for the candidate who has a plan for enacting term limits. Issues come and go, but you barely need opposing thumbs to understand the problems that remain with entrenched systemic corruption.
The fentanyl issue is a pretty good one to go for. It's something that the government has the power to fix and it's a tremendous humanitarian problem in the US.
The War on Drugs has been raging for decades. Do you truly understand your government? Take a good hard look at the legal-but-deadly drugs they fully support as they demonizing harmless ones. That and a multi-decade drug
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What will they do with the political emails I have specifically filtered directly to the trash?
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Re: this is an PAID EMAIL from TRUMP for 2024 (Score:2)
Use Thunderbird as mail client. It has a logic that can learn what's spam or not that works ok.
It is SPAM (Score:4, Insightful)
But politicians want money and so they send out these ridiculous emails and texts. Several time a day. Begging for money. Google is MS 25 years ago. Very badly behaved and under investigation. So they need give the politicians what they want. Spam that users cannot ignore.
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Spam that users cannot ignore.
RTFA. You can turn on filtering for political spam by clicking one checkbox.
I am feeling a distinct lack of outrage about this.
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I am feeling a distinct lack of outrage about this.
Yeah, so am I, but opt-out spam is, in fact, spam.
The good news is, if they can reliably identify political spam well enough to bypass spam filters, they can reliably filter it out if we can opt out. If they actually live up to their promises. (And we know how well Google does that.)
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Yeah, so am I, but opt-out spam is, in fact, spam.
The good news is, if they can reliably identify political spam well enough to bypass spam filters, they can reliably filter it out if we can opt out.
It's quite easy to scan for the word "Republican"
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Spam that users cannot ignore.
RTFA. You can turn on filtering for political spam by clicking one checkbox.
I am feeling a distinct lack of outrage about this.
Ya, but will that banner/button show up for people who use IMAP/POP with, say, Thunderbird? If so, then they're mucking with the content of mail being sent to people. If not, then people have to fuck around with Gmail in the browser. From TFA:
Users will see a banner on the first email from participants in the program, asking if they want to keep seeing the messages, unsubscribe or report as spam.
Re: It is SPAM (Score:2)
You can teach Thunderbird to mark it as spam.
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You can teach Thunderbird to mark it as spam.
Sure, but since I didn't ask for those types of email, they're spam and the shouldn't get that far.
Since Google *clearly* has the ability to filter political email now, they should provide a server-side setting to allow users to specifically enable it, but they won't because everyone would enable it and senders wouldn't participate in whatever scam Google is cooking up.
It IS spam! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is asinine. Political campaign emails are almost always "unsolicited bulk email" - the very definition of spam.
Just stop. Spam filters exist for a reason. Unwanted emails from political candidates is one of them.
And besides, who decides what is a "political campaign", and what is not? I don't need Google finding yet another way to be the arbiter of truth, thank you very much.
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One man's Spam(tm) is another man's canned spiced ham-like substance.
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Political campaign emails are almost always "unsolicited bulk email" - the very definition of spam.
The difference is that regular spam tries to sell you fake stuff, include trojan attachments. They play no useful role in society, they mostly are electronic fraud. They also try to be difficult to filter manually. Political emails, despite unsolicited, play a legitimate role in society in promoting exchange of ideas and participation. They are also easy to filter out using keywords. Classifying political emails together with "Order V1agra" spam would be an action against the foundations of democracy.
What w
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Political emails, despite unsolicited, play a legitimate role in society in promoting exchange of ideas and participation.
That's got to be the more naive thing bit of full in this entire discussion. That is, literally, the exact opposite of the purpose, and effect, of political spam. It is intended to raise money from people who already agree with the candidate (or believe they do, at any rate), and reinforce those beliefs by making the recipient more resistant to any conflicting view.
The exact opposite of what political spam does.
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Let me guess. You're a politician yourself.
Political emails may play a "legitimate" role but it should be down to an individual to decide if they want to receive it or not. Otherwise, it's just unsolicited which makes it, well, SPAM.
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Bullshit. If they're unsolicited, they're still spam, still garbage, still sent by garbage people, and still 100% illegitimate.
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In the USA, campaign emails are explicitly excepted from the legal definition of spam, as defined in the CAN-SPAM act. Yes, that is the actual name. Obviously it means that the congresscreeps that passed the piece of shit CAN-SPAM you.
Bias? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wrong Solution (Score:2)
Fuck off (Score:3)
The only political emails I receive are from American politicians and "special interest groups".
I haven't yet succeeded in being unsubscribed from these emails - the unsubscribe link works, but I still get the emails.
I am not American, I am not eligible to vote in America, and I have no interest in the whining of American politicians about how much money they need to defeat their evil opponent, but I cant stop the emails coming - it quite literally is spam, and here we have Google saying that I cant rely on my spam filter any more.
So, fuck you Google for putting this in place. You are part of the problem. Time to move my last bits off of Gmail.
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The "unsubscribe" links are there to verify that they reached a valid email. Thus they will put your name on a list to sell to others, even if they do unsubscribe you when they feel like it. My gut feeling is that it's safest to just ignore them all rather than try to unsubscribe. Spammers are just like advertisers, in that they have no moral qualms; they would tattoo ads on your grandmother if they could find her.
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You would hope that official campaigns wouldnt do that sort of thing, or that it wouldnt be legal for them to do that sort of thing - I dont click unsubscribe on anything that looks remotely dodgy, but if its an official campaign email then theoretically it should be safe.
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You would hope that official campaigns wouldnt do that sort of thing, or that it wouldnt be legal for them to do that sort of thing
Only if you were born yesterday.
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FYI I never contributed to Trump's campaign, AND yet they e-mail me. I have clicked the "Unsubscribe" link on their mailings many times, and they continue to send me new e-mails. I have stopped bothering with the Unsubscribe links from their mailing lists which apparently are expanding every other month, and just hit Report Spam immediately now.
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I get ten times the amount of spam from GOP, email and snail mail, than Democrats. Not counting local election where you're flooded with everything. Of the democratic email I think most of it is due to someone else with a similar email to mine because they keep using the wrong name and with ads and campaigns for a place 3 states away. But the rest of the political email and snail mail I think is because my mom signed me up to stuff, or else they're all deliberately lying when they say "here's the info yo
Algorithms? (Score:2)
So ... (Score:2)
Feel Free... (Score:2)
Google, please feel free to hist the "prominent unsubscribe button" for me now. I can tell you for certain that I do not need to wait to see that spam in my inbox before wanting to toss it out...
While you're at it, could you also take care of those one-line text emails w/ embedded pics for all kinds of things from fake contests through penis enlargement pills... No matter how many times I tell you that crap is spam, you seem to only consider whether I thought the actual product was the spam, not the actual
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If you leave spam out of it, all other political advertising is obviously protected by the First Amendment.
The people who sell advertising time and space have the right to use their property to run political ads.
The people who contract with them have the right to use their services.
Political speech is basically the epitome of "free speech".
The problem with spam is it's an act of vandalism, using the property of others without consent.
But now Google at least consents to this.
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But now Google at least consents to this.
As is so often the case with self-regulation, they're doing to to avoid being drug into court on a matter where they can't possibly win.
Only if... (Score:2)
Only if I ALSO get the option to move them ALL to spam.
If google is intentionally allowing "unsolicited paid advertisements" (the literal definition of spam) into my inbox and I don't have the option to opt-out of that spam, then maybe there's a bigger problem here.
Campaign finance "law" might be part of the problem too. Just sayin.
Joke's on them. (Score:1)
I live in a deep blue Massachusetts. My vote doesn't count no matter which way I cast it. Especially the elections in New Hampshire that for $ome rea$on I get donation requests for.
Because the conservatives ARE spamming (Score:3)
Gmail service filters more Republican fundraising and campaign emails to spam.
Many years ago I made the mistake of contributing to a republican campaign. In the past i've contributed to both republican and democrat campaigns.
I unsubscribed from their mailings. I get nothing from the democrat campaigns, But the Republicans are still spamming me despite "Unsubscribing" half a dozen times they continue to spam.
If I Report their fundraising attempts I continue to get as spam that's because IT IS SPAM, and emails like this are MOST ALWAYS UNWANTED. The democrat campaign groups are Not spamming me, Only the Republican ones are, Therefore... IT is 100% Fair that the republicans are being marked as spam more.
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I unsubscribed from their mailings. I get nothing from the Democrat campaigns, But the Republicans are still spamming me despite "Unsubscribing" half a dozen times they continue to spam.
And, if people don't respect your Inbox, how likely are they to respect you?
Improve user experience / provide more certainty (Score:2)
"We expect to begin the pilot with a small number of campaigns from both parties and will test whether these changes improve the user experience, and provide more certainty for senders during this election period," ...
For "improve user experience" do they mean for the senders of this political spam or the recipients, 'cause if it's the latter I can't make a prediction right now and it's not good for the senders. Also, if I didn't ask for, or previously agree to, email from someone, then it's spam and I don't care about providing "more certainty for senders", unless it's certainty that I won't receive their spam.
Spam works - people are stupid (Score:2)
The reality is that a small proportion of spam emails achieve their target, so it makes sense for our lords and masters in the elite to go on doing it. There's no obvious answer to this problem,
EASY FIX (Score:2)
Make this hurt them: Forward every single political SPAM you get directly to Sundar Pichai.
Suggestion (Score:2)
Since Google *clearly* has the ability to filter political spam -- I mean, unsolicited political emails -- now, I suggest they provide a server-side setting to allow users to specifically enable this. Obviously, they won't because (basically) everyone would enable it and senders wouldn't register/participate and whatever scam Google is cooking up won't work like they want it to.
On the other hand, if this is about people not receiving political email that they consented / signed up to get, then that's an