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Google is ending a pilot program that allowed political emails to bypass Gmail’s spam filters, but has yet to decide whether to turn the pilot program into a longer-term option for political campaigns. says. The Republican National Committee (RNC) sued Google over its spam filtering practices in October 2022, but it did not participate in the pilot program.
“The pilot program is nonpartisan and open to all eligible participants,” and “is expected to run until January 31, 2023,” Google’s court filings said. It has been.
The Federal Election Commission approved Google’s pilot program in August 2022, amid Republicans’ allegations of Google’s bias. “As the complaint clarifies, RNC has elected not to participate in Google’s FEC approval pilot program,” says Google’s motion to dismiss.
RNC’s lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California claimed that “Google kicked out millions of RNC emails.” many Sent to the spam folders of potential donors and supporters during critical times of campaign fundraising and community building. ”
Google said it had not yet decided whether to implement a long-term program for political campaigns. “Following a request for guidance from the FEC, the pilot will conclude his January 31st assessment of appropriate next steps,” he told Ars. “During the run of this program, he had bipartisan participants from over 100 political committees from various political parties. While considering feedback on the program, we will continue to look for ways to improve and enhance the Gmail experience. I will continue.”
U.S. Electoral Service dismisses RNC lawsuit
In addition to filing a lawsuit, the RNC has filed a complaint with the FEC that Google violated U.S. law by using Gmail’s spam filter for Republican campaign emails, stating that Gmail’s spam filter “has Illegal in-kind donations made for President Biden. and other Democratic candidates. ”
The FEC dismissed the RNC’s allegations in a decision last week. He said the FEC, an independent agency of the US government, “has no reason to believe” that Google made the prohibited in-kind contribution. The FEC said, “The available information indicates that Google’s spam filters are in place for commercial purposes and not for electoral purposes.
Google pointed to the FEC decision in a statement provided to Ars today. “As the FEC’s recent bipartisan decision confirmed, we are not filtering email for political purposes.Like the FEC complaint, this lawsuit has no merit. While we continue to invest in spam filtering technology that protects people from unwanted messages so that they reach the inboxes of users who want to see them,” the company said.
With the pilot program ending next week, “Email sent by program participants will not be subject to otherwise targeted spam detection,” says Google’s motion to dismiss. “Instead, as long as participants’ emails do not contain material prohibited by Gmail’s terms and policies (such as phishing attacks, malware, or illegal content) and comply with other program requirements. , those emails are placed in the user’s inbox folder or spam, which relies on direct feedback from users who receive the email.”
Google’s motion to the court to dismiss the RNC lawsuit states, “Gmail’s spam filtering policies apply equally to email from all senders, political or otherwise. , the Federal Election Commission has already rejected the RNC’s theory of political discrimination, saying Gmail filters spam “to increase the value of the Gmail product” and to “impact federal elections.” It turns out that it is not “to give.” ”
