The Federal Election Commission (FEC) voted Thursday to allow Google to launch a pilot program that would allow emails to bypass spam filters. The plan was developed in response to intense criticism of Gmail; These studies showed that filtered emails are more conservative as spam compared to their left-leaning counterparts.
The Hill reported on Thursday that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) voted to allow Google to introduce a pilot program for its Gmail email product that would allow campaign emails to bypass spam filters. biased in campaign emails.
Sabo having fun at Google CEO Sundar Pichai (unsavoryagents.com)
The FEC voted 4 to 1 to approve the program, stating that testing of new features is allowed under the campaign law. Commissioner Helen Weintraub, a Democrat, voted against the order, saying “it’s hard to get over the fact that this unique advantage is given to political committees and not just to political committees”.
Democratic Party Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, along with three Republicans, voted in favor of the program, but expressed similar reluctance: [support this]And for the same reasons not all commentators want to do it, but I think the law, the commissioner’s rules, and the commission’s case-law allow it.”
“I also don’t want to interfere with innovation and pilot programs. So, I hope that if Google continues to work on this program, it will reduce spam rather than expand it, and expand best practices for bulk senders.”
Google sought FEC approval for the program in June after facing criticism from Republicans who announced that Gmail filters GOP emails for spam.
Breitbart News senior correspondent Allum Bokhari wrote about the situation:
Google’s Gmail, the world’s most popular desktop email client, doesn’t equally filter emails from conservatives into the spam folder, where they’re more likely to be read, according to a recent study. .
The title of the article, which can be read in full here, is “A Brief Analysis of Political Bias in Email Spam Filtering Algorithms in the 2020 US Elections”.
The working period lasted five months from July to the end of November 2020, the peak period of this year’s presidential election campaign. Researchers used more than a hundred email addresses to subscribe to email notification lists of two presidential candidates, more than seventy Senate candidates, and more than one hundred and fifty House candidates.
The document has a moderate slant to the right in Outlook and Yahoo, and a large slant to the left in Gmail. According to the study, 59.3% of emails from conservative candidates were marked as spam by Masters of the Universe at Google. Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo Mail showed less bias in favor of conservative candidates.
A Google spokesperson said the company will “take into account both positive and negative feedback received during the public comment period.”
The spokesperson added: “Our goal with this pilot is to evaluate alternative ways to handle the issues bulk senders experience and to give users tighter control over their inbox to reduce spam. We will continue to monitor feedback as the pilot rolls out to make sure it meets its goals. ”
Read more about Hill here.
Source: Breitbart
