Gmail filters more likely to weed out GOP emails

[brooklynite]

Axios

It turns out spam filters have their own partisan divide.

Driving the news: New research shows Gmail was substantially more likely to mark Republican fundraising emails as spam during the heat of the 2020 campaign, while Yahoo and Outlook disproportionately flagged Democratic ones.

Why it matters: Email forms a huge and growing part of both parties' fundraising operations.

Any disparity in the messages making it into recipients' inboxes can have huge effects on message dissemination and fundraising during the crucial months leading up to an election.

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that disparity can be significant, allowing candidates from one party to reach more donors than their opposition, depending on the email services those donors use.

[Torchlight]

1. Relevant context included in story.

Email providers point to factors such as past user behavior to explain the disparity and dismiss any suggestion of platform bias.

Google says the study doesn't adequately account for the overriding factor for Gmail's spam filter: past user behavior. "Mail classifications in Gmail automatically adjust to match Gmail users' preferences and actions," the spokesperson said. "Gmail users can move messages to spam, or to any other category. Gmail automatically adjusts the classifications of particular emails according to these user actions.”

[NoRethugFriends]

2. The reason mentioned above by user Torchlight is in the very same article you excerpt from

Did you not think that was relevant to include!!!

[frazzled]

3. I don't use Gmail, and

I’ve never gotten even one item of Republican spam, either in the junk folder or my inbox. Perhaps because I’ve always lived in blue areas?

[brooklynite]

4. Would you like to?

I can get you on some mailing lists...

[frazzled]

7. No thanks!

I just deleted 293 Democratic emails (I kid you not; they accumulated in my spam folder in one month, in addition to the 30+ per day that land in my inbox).

I don’t want any stinky Republican spam stinking up my mail.

[PoliticAverse]

5. Yahoo puts all the Democratic fundraising Emails in my spam folder. n/t

[48656c6c6f20]

6. Well my Gmail filter

Does it even better, immediately to trash.