FEC Draft Green Lights Gmail Plan for More Political Spam ⇥ gizmodo.com

Mack DeGeurin, Gizmodo:

On Wednesday, the Federal Election Commission released a draft answer in favor of a proposed Google program that would keep Republicans’ campaign email blasts out of users’ spam folders. The carveout, first proposed by Google earlier this year under pressure from whiney Republican lawmakers, stands out as yet another example of Big Tech companies catering to conservatives to avoid the perception of conservative bias.

Those who have written to the FEC overwhelmingly do not want Google to change its spam processing rules to exclude political emails. Check out any batch of responses and you will see the same patterns: people are comfortable allowing Google to figure out what is spam and what is not, and see no need to carve out a special all-clear route for emails from political parties.

In a way, there is consistency in the FEC’s draft position: U.S. politicians are already exempt from most rules governing unsolicited phone calls and texts. They do not have to respect the Do Not Call list. It is sort of fitting for them to be excluded from spam filters, too, though it is maddening. They have extraordinary reach and individuals have little control.