Gmail proceeding with pilot that exempts political emails from spam after FEC approval

Abner Li | Aug 11 2022 - 1:20 pm PT

Back in June, it emerged that Google wanted to exempt political campaign emails in the United States from Gmail’s spam filter. This spurred a lot of backlash, but the company is proceeding with the pilot program after receiving approval today from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

This pilot program means that emails from registered political campaigns will not be marked as spam by Gmail. It’s the result of complaints about alleged partisanship.

From an end user perspective, the first political email received from a campaign (which Google has confirmed is a valid one with the FEC) will have a “prominent notification” that asks “whether the user wishes to continue receiving messages from the sender.” It is unclear what design this will take, but it might (if current spam warnings are any indication) appear at the top of the message upon opening.

If you say no, “future emails from that sender to a particular user would be placed in the spam folder.” After the initial email, Google is also requiring that political emails allow for “one-click unsubscribe.”

Unless a user opts out in the first message or any subsequent messages from a particular sender, the user would continue receiving messages from that sender. Moreover, Gmail users would be able to express their preferences at any time and affect future delivery by marking a sender’s message as either spam or not spam.

The FEC granted approval today, and Google, in a statement to us, said it will be proceeding with the pilot program. It will monitor feedback as the program rolls out:

We appreciate the FEC’s speedy review of our request and we will reflect on the positive and negative feedback received during the public comment period. Our goal during this pilot program is to assess alternative ways of addressing concerns from bulk senders, while giving users clear controls over their inboxes to minimize unwanted email. We will continue to monitor feedback as the pilot rolls out to ensure it is meeting its goals.
— Google Spokesperson