Gmail officially allowed to spam-proof politicians’ emails

The US Federal Election Commission has approved a new proposal from Google to keep campaign emails from being marked as spam.

The Verge reports that Google’s plan, first reported by Axios in June, would allow for candidates, political party committees and leadership political action committees to apply for the programme that would make their messages exempt from Gmail’s spam detection systems.

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The vote on the six-member body, which is split evenly by party, was four in favour and one against, with one abstention.

One Democrat joined the three Republicans in endorsing the plan.

While Google did not need the FEC to approve the plan before rolling it out, it sought a vote earlier this summer to ensure the programme wasn’t at risk of breaking current election regulations.

In the ruling, the FEC confirmed that Google’s plan was legal.

Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub during the FEC’s Thursday open meeting likened the programme’s exclusivity to Google offering its own “in-kind” contribution to political groups.

“I have a hard time getting around the fact that this is a unique benefit offered to political committees, and only political committees.”

The Washington Post reports that the bipartisan approval from the regulator clears the way for Google to implement the programme, which would disable Gmail’s ordinary spam filters for participating candidates and political committees, leaving individual users to mark unwanted emails manually.

The pilot programme, for any sender registered with the FEC whose emails do not contain illegal content or other material prohibited by Gmail’s terms of service, is likely to last about six months, although the timing of its implementation was not immediately clear.

Google spokesman José Castañeda said it appreciate the FEC’s speedy review of their request and will reflect on the positive and negative feedback received during the public comment period.

“Our goal during this pilot programme is to assess alternative ways of addressing concerns from bulk senders, while giving users clear controls over their inboxes to minimise unwanted email. We will continue to monitor feedback as the pilot rolls out to ensure it is meeting its goals.”

The company sought FEC approval for the programme following a pressure campaign waged by Republicans, who accused Google of unfairly filtering its emails.

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