Google pilot to keep political campaign emails out of Gmail spam launched

Gmail users could start seeing more campaign fundraising emails in their inboxes in the next couple of days, reports Axios.

Announced in June, the programme allows candidates, political party committees and leadership political action committees to apply for spam folder exemptions.

The move is “partly a result of Google bowing to pressure from conservatives who claimed the company marked Republican emails as spam more often than others”.

The US Federal Election Commission had approved the Google programme in August.

“Google has come under fire that its algorithms unfairly target conservative content across its services, and that its Gmail service filters more Republican fundraising and campaign emails to spam,” the report mentioned.

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“We expect to begin the pilot with a small number of campaigns from both parties and will test whether these changes improve the user experience, and provide more certainty for senders during this election period,” a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.

“We will continue to listen and respond to feedback as the pilot progresses,” the spokesperson added.

Google will now allow candidates and political party committees to apply for its programme that would make their messages exempt from Gmail’s spam detection systems.

Former US President Donald Trump’s campaigns were criticised for using spammy tactics in its fundraising emails.