Google wanted to exempt American political campaign emails from Gmail’s spam filter, it was revealed back in June. a lot of backlash was prompted by this, but the business is moving through with the pilot program after gaining approval from the Federal Election Commission today (FEC).
As a result of this trial experiment, Gmail will stop classifying emails from legitimate political campaigns as spam. It is the outcome of complaints about alleged partisanship .
An prominent notification that asks the recipient if they want to keep getting emails from the sender will appear on the first political email they receive from a campaign (which Google has verified is a legitimate one with the FEC). It is unknown what form this will take, but if the spam warnings that are currently displayed are any indicator, it may pop up at the top of the message when it is opened.
If you choose to do so, any subsequent emails sent by that sender to that specific user will be put in the spam folder. Google is also required that political emails include one-click unsubscribe after the initial email.
Users would continue receiving messages from a certain sender unless they opt out in the initial message or any subsequent messages from that sender. Additionally, Gmail users would be able to mark a message as spam or not spam at any moment, which would have an impact on future delivery.
The FEC granted approval today and Google informed us that the pilot program would go forward in a statement. It will track comments while the program is implemented:
We value the FEC’s prompt evaluation of our request, and we will consider the suggestions made throughout the open comment period, both favorable and unfavorable. During this pilot study, we wish to evaluate alternate approaches to dealing with bulk sender concerns while offering users explicit control over their inboxes to reduce unsolicited email. As the pilot is implemented, we’ll keep an eye on the feedback to make sure it’s accomplishing its objectives.
a spokesperson for Google
FTC: We use income-generating auto-affiliate connections. MORE ON GMAIL. More.
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