Permission for a new Google plan to avoid spam classification for campaign emails granted

Permission for a new Google plan to avoid spam classification for campaign emails was granted by the Federal Election Commission granted. Axios in June made Google’s proposal public, which stated that candidates, political party committees, and leadership political action committees would be eligible to apply for the program that would exempt their messages from Gmail’s spam detection algorithms. Google sought a vote earlier this summer to ensure that the program wouldn’t compromise current election laws, even though the FEC didn’t need to approve the program before it could be implemented. On Thursday, the FEC declared Google’s strategy to be legal.

Google announced its plans for political filtering not long after a recent study found that it was disproportionately flagging Republican fundraising emails as spam when compared to those of Democratic politicians and candidates. The study infuriated the GOP, caused a storm of criticism, and led to Kent Walker, Google’s senior legal officer, receiving an invitation to a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill to talk about the company’s filtering decisions.

Having agreed to the compromise, Google disputed the study’s findings, claiming that it only examined a small sample of emails and failed to determine if campaigns utilized the pertinent bulk emailing features already included in the service.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns have come under fire for using spammy tactics in their fundraising emails, frequently using misleading subject lines, or copying conversations that voters could have with friends and relatives online. After the FBI had earlier in the week investigated Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican running for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, came under fire on Tuesday for sending a fundraising email to supporters with the subject line “FBI RAID – BREAKING INFORMATION.”

Google will soon allow campaigns like Oz’s to qualify for the program and ensure that their emails won’t be screened out of a user’s inbox despite using spam-like practices and language thanks to the FEC’s decision on Thursday.