Google's Gmail to Utilize AI-Powered Email Filtration to Avoid Bias on Political Emails

Election campaigns nowadays are taking advantage of every communication available to contact voters and collect donations. Google suggests a solution to protect political "campaign emails from ending up in spam folders" in response to concerns about Gmail's filtering.

In response to recent complaints about perceived bias, Google is seeking clearance from the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) for a trial program that would exclude campaign emails from Gmail spam filtering, according to Axios and confirmed by the company.

Google's Gmail to Utilize AI-Powered Email Filtering to Avoid Bias

To eliminate prejudice, Gmail will employ AI-powered filters that automatically classify emails as spam. These filters will examine a variety of indications, including IP address characteristics, domains and subdomains, bulk sender authentication, and more. Data about user comments on an email is also collected, which is obtained from emails that users flag as spam. The AI also learns from user behavior.

This is how Google is attempting to guarantee that emails from US political campaigns reach users' Gmail inboxes rather than being automatically sent to the spam bin. The company has requested approval from the Federal Election Commission for a plan to "exempt emails from authorized candidate committees, political party committees, and leadership political action committees registered with the FEC" from spam detection, as long as they follow Gmail's rules on phishing, malware, and illegal content. Google will also ask people the first time they get an email whether they want to continue hearing from that campaign.

Gmail Aims to Reduce Junk Emails But Won't Screen Based on Political Affiliations

According to Google spokesperson José Castañeda, they want Gmail to provide a wonderful experience for all its users. This includes reducing junk email, but they emphasize that this should not be done at the price of screening communications based on political affinities.

The test program might help boost inboxing rates for political mass senders while increasing email delivery transparency. If the FEC approves the proposal, consumers will see a conspicuous notification the first time they get an email from a campaign. They will also be able to opt-out of campaign notices in the future. The same Gmail phishing, malware, and illegal content restrictions are still in force. While users may still classify emails as spam, Google will no longer do so by default.

Google has stated that one of the primary reasons Gmail places many campaign emails in the spam folder is that other users frequently designate the emails as spam. Earlier this year, a North Carolina State University research indicated that Gmail was more likely than Yahoo and Microsoft Outlook to algorithmically categorize emails from Republican campaigns as spam during the 2020 election.

Republican lawmakers filed legislation this month that would make it unlawful for email service providers to route campaign mailings to the spam folder automatically. It would also force operators to provide a quarterly transparency report outlining how many times campaign communications were detected as spam, including breakdowns for both the Republican and Democratic parties' emails. Furthermore, providers would be required to reveal the technologies they use to select which campaign emails to designate as spam.

Until then, Google recommends that bulk senders monitor their domain's health using Gmail's Postmaster Tools.