Explained: How Google is planning to exempt political campaign emails from Gmail’s spam folder – Times of India

Google has recently put forward a plan to keep out “political campaign emails” from Gmail’s spam folders in a response to the complaints about the service’s filtering process. According to a report by 9to5Google, Google has confirmed that the company has urged the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) to support the “pilot program” that is designed to exempt political campaign emails from Gmail’s spam protection. Nowadays, election campaigns use all the available modes of communication to reach voters and raise funds. However, Google has proposed the exemption of political campaign emails from the Gmail spam folder responding to some recent allegations about being biased. In May, Google rejected those claims and explained how the Gmail filters work.
How do the Gmail filters work
As per the report, the tech giant has explained that Gmail uses multiple “AI-driven filters” that decide which emails will be marked as spam. These filters look into different types of signals and other factors to determine if an email needs to be marked as spam which includes — characteristics of the IP address, domains/subdomains, authentication of the bulk senders as well as user input. User feedback is key to the filtering process as these filters learn from users’ actions. Gmail users can mark certain emails as spam and can also select a sender’s emails and ask the service to send them to their inbox.
Who would the new Gmail spam exemption apply to
The report mentions that Google’s new Gmail spam exemption would apply to “authorized candidate committees, political party committees and leadership political action committees registered with the FEC.” However, Google will ask users if they want to keep hearing from a particular campaign after the first time they receive an email regarding it, offering them the ability to opt-out. Moreover, Gmail’s existing phishing, malware, and illegal content policies will be working like before and users can also mark spam emails, but the company won’t anymore do it by default, claims the report.
What Google has asked the US FEC
The tech giant has recently asked the FEC to authorise a pilot program that is likely to help improve “inboxing rates for political bulk senders,” mentions the report. According to Google, this new program will offer, “more transparency into email deliverability, while still letting users protect their inboxes by unsubscribing or labelling emails as spam” as the company tries to explore new ways to provide the “best possible” Gmail experience.
What is Gmail’s Postmaster tool
Google has asked “bulk senders” to use the Postmaster tool available in Gmail which will also help political authorities to analyse the “health of their domain.” The company explains that the Postmaster tool site will allow bulk senders to “access data and diagnostics that will help them better understand how to successfully reach their intended recipients.” Moreover, Google is also working to “‘increase the amount and variety of information” it provides in the Postmaster tool.
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