FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20463

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

The Commission 

Office of the Commission Secretary 

July 13, 2022

AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) 105 Individual Comments

Attached are 105 individual comments on AO 2022-14 (Google LLC).

Attachment 
From: Brian Mohr

To: AO

Subject: A0 2022-14 Google LLC - Ex parte communications - NO

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:27:17 PM

Dear FEC -

Both as a long-time Google (Gmail) user as well as a voting citizen in this country, I plead with you not to allow

unsolicited political emails to be sent to Gmail users. There is no conceivable benefit for the user and, instead,

poses security risks, abuses to their privacy, and opens the door for further foreign influence in our country’s

elections.

Sincerely,

Brian Mohr

Sent from an iDevice
From: Chris Rupp

To: AO

Subject: About the AO 2022-14 proposal

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:56:22 AM

Please do not allow Google to allow ANY campaign/political emails to

bypass spam filters! The trash that litters my physical mailbox and

answering machine is ANNOYING ENOUGH! There should be some shred of

personal freedom left to people somewhere! Unrelenting invasive

unsolicited junk, be it sale ads for political flyers or calls SHOULD

NOT be allowed to invade every possible crack and crevice of life! To

take away any recource given to allow people TO AVOID such brazen

intrusion upon their pursuit if life, liberty and happiness is nothing

short of being a criminal violation of the rights this country ws

founded upon!
From: Burton Strauss

To: AO

Subject: Advisory opinion on allowing political email to bypass provider spam filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:31:17 PM

I already receive too much political email where senders do not honor (or are very slow to)

unsubscribe requests, share mailing lists, and other actions that do not require me to OptIn to

receive these emails.

The current filters at least remove the worst of the email and this is a benefit to me.

Please do not allow this change.

-----Burton Strauss
From: Malcolm Slaney

To: AO

Subject: Advisory opinion on election SPAM

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:18:07 PM

I understand that Google has requested permission to allow unsolicited email from eligible candidates to bypass

their spam filters.

I strenuously object. I pay for my (Google) email account. I do NOT want every Tom, Dick and Harry candidate to

be able to fill my inbox with their unsolicited email!

I’m happy if candidates want to pay for the privilege, as they do when they run advertisements in the papers and

television stations I watch.

Unsolicited election mail is still SPAM.

I do not want to see it.

- Malcolm Slaney
From: Alex Stevens

To: AO

Subject: Allowing Spam to engulf Gmail will just destroy gmail, which is probably the political motivation of some people. I

considering the poor quality and unreliability of existing political commentary It would just destroy public

discourse.

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:17:00 PM

Sent from Mail for Windows
From: Michael

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-07 (Swalwell) (Draft A)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:19:09 AM

Good morning,

Comment to AO 2022-07 (Swalwell) (Draft A): Please do not allow any political emails to

bypass spam filters. One, if I want to hear from a campaign I will sign up for their emails.

Two, this is an invitation for misinformation, scams, and phishing on an even greater scale and

will not serve any positive purpose and will only serve to further erode Americans' trust in an

already decaying political environment. Three, it would allow greater access to certain groups

of the population by bad actors only looking to radicalize and create a greater number of

domestic terrorists. Here I'm referencing not only groups within our borders but also other

countries that have already shown their ability to destabilize our system but also directly

influence our election process. Four, no one (not even a political group of any stripe) should

be allowed greater access to me than any corporate entity that frankly has too much access

already.

Please listen to the American public and demonstrate that at least some of our agencies are still

functioning and looking out for the public as they should rather than catering to corporations

and the politically powerful. I ask this not just as a citizen but also as a fellow regulator.

Thank you,

Michael Burkhardt
From: Steven Delaney

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Goggle LLC) Comments

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:28:48 AM

TWIMC -

Please Please PLEASE do not give Google the OK to relax its SPAM filters relative to unsolicited political emails.

It's bad enough that I can't successfully stop all the unsolicited political SPAM calls I get on my work and personal

phones. I don't need even more junk email from dubious political entities spreading their lies and misinformation.

-- 

Steven M Delaney

"The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it..."

Mark Twain
From: Matthew DeGoede

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:29:36 PM

Regarding Google's plan to allow political campaign emails in the main folder instead of

spam: that is a terrible idea.

Spam is spam. It's basically a time wasting form of e-harassment, and it doesn't matter if you

are harassing me for reasons political or apolitical. I still don't want it.

Google's plan will disengage people even more from politics by bombarding them with spam.

It will lead to more information overload and frustration.

It will make email less useful, clogging it with nonsense I didn't sign up for.

It will make spam filters worse by allowing other spam to pose as "political" Can I belong to

the Nigerian Prince Party? Who is Google to say what is a legitimate political party? A person

called "Goodspaceguy" runs for some office every election in my state. He's obviously not

serious, but works his emails be spam? Tech companies are terrible at using algorithms to

understand nuance. They won't be any better at this.

Please tell Google no.

-Matthew DeGoede
From: Eli Black

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:45:54 AM

Please do not let Google do this!
From: Seth Johnston

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:14:33 AM

To whom it may concern:

Hard pass, hell no, absolutely not to allowing political e-mail to pass Google's spam filters!

Allowing this measure could unleash not only a glut of unwanted, dubiously vetted, e-mails

but also serve as an avenue for potential security risks.

If I want information on a particular topic or politician, I can subscribe on my own to specific

newsletters and handle the e-mail spam bypass on my own.

Regards,

Seth J.
From: Michael Moschini

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:36:24 AM

Please do not allow Alphabet/Google to send unsolicited emails from politicians or political

action committees that bypass spam rules. My physical mailbox is already overflowing with

flyers that end up in the recycle bin. I don't need to be anymore helpless to filter out politics

from my email.

Respectfully,

Michael S Moschini

Denver CO
From: Dave Holiday

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:35:39 PM

Do not allow this. Every time I participate in politics I'm inundated with emails from political

groups. This makes it hard to participate in political activity. Do not allow them to bypass

filters. In fact, investigate what google allows past the filters and why.

Thank you,

David Holiday

-- 

There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong.

-H. L. Mencken
From: Edward Thompson

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) Google Political Spam Filter Bypass

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:47:58 PM

Dear FEC,

In the matter of AO 2022-14 please do not approve Google’s request to pilot a program

bypassing spam filters for political messaging.

I have used gmail since the early invite only period in 2004 and have spent literally years

training the spam filter to keep my inbox relatively free from unwanted emails. 

Nearly every political email falls into the category of unwanted. 

This proposal would undo years of work by developers keeping email usable by sorting real

useful communcation from spam. Please do not allow all this work to be undone.

Regards,

Edward Thompson

-- 

"Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true." - Niels Bohr
From: joseph reedick

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) NO to google pilot to allow political email spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:17:11 AM

Two Words: No.

Spam is spam. There's no need to allow political emails to bypass spam filters. Email is very

cheap to send; a single political entity could literally send me dozens to hundreds to thousands

of emails a day if they so wanted. I dread to think of them all doing so, plus by lowering the

barrier to entry, there would be a lot more political entities jumping on the email spam wagon.

It could very easily make gmail almost unusable every election season. 

Another concern: I can see advertisers abusing the bypass-spam-filters rule by forming

political parties and sending people messages like "If you contribute $49.99 to the

AcmeBlenderCompany PAC, we will give you a FREE blender (worth $49.99.)" in order by

bypass spam filters.

Thank you,

jareedick
From:

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:57:19 PM

Please do not approve of this motion/idea. We do not need any spam / mass emailing of any kind to be able to

bypass filters. We get bombarded enough for political stuff with internet posting, mailboxes, signs, tv and the like.

Leave emails alone so we can have at least one area that is peaceful and free of political message spamfest.
From: Sean Wilson

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:19:58 PM

Dear FCC admins,

Please do not authorize Google's pilot program. The sheer number of political ads in every

other media is already too much. And unless I specifically sign up for political emails, I don't

want any of it in my inbox. It's marked spam because it's mostly grifting and scams. Look at

Trump's grift: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105279623/jan-6-committee-trumpcampaign-legal-defense-fund

Thank you,

Sean
From: Justin Anonuevo

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:25:58 PM

Hi,

Please do not permit this. This undermines the trust people have in their government and

service providers by emphasizing that government only has the interest of the politicians in

mind. As a informed voter, I will not listen to campaign emails or unsolicited messages. They

are nothing but frustration. An uninformed voter will either be frustrated at their government

or already accepting these emails as they want them. But they already have the power to put

those in their inboxes.

If this is passed, I may be forced to move to a self hosted email system, but most people do not

have that option, not to mention the financial and technical means. That means the primary

burden of this request is on the socio-economically disadvantaged, which isn't helpful to

making us all feel like government is "for the people" instead of "for politicians".

Please decline this and emphasize that providers need to be neutral. All mail is validated and

measured equally on its merits and the desires of the recipients. Email is not an arm of the

government to get us to vote for them. Pay for ads like everyone else.

-Justin
From: Timothy Anderson

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:07:42 PM

That's a hard no on allowing political campaigns to bypass the spam filter, if they can't

produce email that is of high enough quality to bypass existing filters then they need to fire the

unpaid intern and get some professional help, but either way no special treatment.
From: Iris Felshman

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:17:24 PM

Hello,

This proposal by Google is one of the worst ideas I've heard. In this current climate, political

messaging is mostly akin to someone on a street corner yelling "PLEASE GIVE US MONEY

BEFORE THE (political party) LITERALLY EXPLODE THE COUNTRY". This type of

political messaging has all of the call to action and implied terror of a scam - the only

distinctions between the two are that politcal ones are for political purposes in the country, and

that they sound more plausible than a standard scam.

Letting these emails go directly into inboxes will spread scams and false politics far quicker

and easier than even Facebook can. This would directly lower the quality of email for

everyone that has a gmail account. More worryingly, this would almost certainly further lower

the level of political discourse in the country.

Please reject this pilot.
From: sizer99

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:40:48 PM

Please do not allow Google to force political emails bypass spam filters.

Political emails are a firehose of hyperbole, lies, and histrionic fundraising requests from

people I did not sign up to get messages from (they buy each others' lists of possible suckers).

They are the very definition of unwanted spam.

The worst thing is that they are effectively free to send. There is nothing preventing each

political spammer from sending dozens of emails a day to each victim except the fact that this

would get them marked as spam. On the other hand, the occasional high quality political

emails that I actually opted into get past the spam filter with no problem because they aren't

spam. Things are working fairly well as they are!

This will just further destroy the already catastrophically damaged election system.

Thank you,

Ron D
From:

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:03:27 PM

The proposed bypass of unsolicited political emails from spam filters is an awful idea.

I absolutely guarantee that if this is permitted it will, in short order, be weaponized to radicalize an even larger

portion of our population who seem to be incredibly susceptible to extreme partisan rhetoric.

Please don’t add to the problems our country faces - no one with even half a functioning brain wants to see another

January 6th.

Use the functioning half of your brains & tell Google “NO”. For all of us. Please.

-Kevin Kaa

Everett, WA
From: Kevin Day

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:44:07 AM

To whom it may concern,

I think this is a terrible idea. If I want to receive emails from someone, I will give them my

address and permission to communicate with me.

Politicians do not have the right to invade my privacy without my consent. Politicians have

many options for sharing their platforms with the public. If they want to communicate with

me, then they need to earn the right.

This proposal brings the mess that is unsolicited political robocalls into my email inbox. We

have worked so hard to solve the spam email problem, let's not make it worse, please.

Regards,

Kevin Day
From: Zachary Madding

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:42:58 AM

Please do not allow political spam to bypass spam filters. Political spam is unwelcome,

distracting and divisive. 

I definitely would not ever engage with any organization using spam to solicit or recruit. 

Copying the behavior of criminal spammers is not the way forward for American politics.

Sincerely,

Zachary Madding, An American Voter
From: John Craig

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:10:05 AM

Google is requesting the right to allow political solicitations to bypass spam filters and come

directly to users' email in-boxes.

Please do not allow this.

1. People campaigning for office can and do reach us. And we can choose to be more

easily reached.

2. My phone already rings when politicians are campaigning. (When I ask them to stop

calling, they do not.)

3. The majority of politicians in my state (Alabama) campaign in ways that I already find

frightening: posing with guns, threatening classes of persons because of their class,

basing their campaign promises on apocalyptic interpretations of the Bible which revel

in violence and hatred.

That last item, #3, has often been true in American history. Political campaigns have been

raucous, violent, hateful. Not always, but also not infrequently. Political campaigns belong in

public spaces, not private spaces.

In short, enabling this bypass would bring harmful, intrusive, unwanted messages into people's

personal spaces, possibly into the last safe spaces remaining to them.
From: Terry Johnson

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:48:57 AM

FEC Commissioners,

Regarding AO 2022-14 Request by Google for a pilot program to allow political emails to

bypass filtering in Gmail, I am writing to request that the request be denied.

Political emails should not be given preference over other types of email. Allowing this type

of email directly to user's inboxes should be considered a prohibited in-kind contribution.

Thank you

Terry Johnson
From: GW Brown

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:06:11 AM

I strongly not in favor of FEC support for Google's proposal to allow

political email a pathway to bypass spam filters. Replacing a filter with an

opt-out places the burden on the email user to play whack-a-mole with every

campaign that pops up from here on into eternity. Opt-out also assumes the

campaign is competent or ethical enough to honor the request. This feels

equivalent to a system that forces your TV to turn on and automatically tune

any channel that is currently playing a political ad, unless you call that

campaign and ask them to exclude you. I implore the FEC to avoid supporting

this proposal and keep the current opt-in status quo.
From: Kerian Nox

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:23:47 AM

Regarding the question to permit Google to permit political email content to bypass spam

filters regardless of the preference of the individual recipient, please note that this is a very

bad idea that would degrade the usefulness of Google/Alphabet's Gmail service severely.

Email is not social media and is a private service for the sole use of the individual email user.

The political emails would be just another form of intrusive advertising that would overwhelm

legitimate and desired emails by the user. It would place the burden of screening the inbox for

desired and opted-in emails unfairly on the end user and would run the risk of the service

being abandoned entirely.

In addition, because of the nature of the political emails, it is likely an "in-kind" campaign

contribution that would be abused by political candidates as a way to avoid contribution limits.

This potential abuse of a very private and intimate system is great enough that it would be

better for the public (American and International) that this permission not be granted and the

end user continue to be permitted to opt-in to desired political content as is already done.

Kerian
From: Todd Harrison

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:22:59 PM

I am strongly opposed to permitting political messages bypassing my spam filter. I am already

drowning in more than enough such messaging I have to manually filter out of my inbox. 

Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. - C. S. Lewis
From: Mark Hagopian

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 Google LLC

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:39:36 PM

Dear FEC,

I am strongly opposed to receiving unsolicited emails of any sort. I am vehemently opposed to

political spam. The last thing I need is to have 100s of unsolicited political messages cluttering

my inbox.

During the election cycle - I get multiple unsolicited text messages every day. Supposedly, all

you have to do is reply STOP to remove yourself from the list. In practice this may stop the

specific call center from sending messages (I'm not convinced it stops them at all), but it

doesn't stop the messages. The email situation will be 100x worse.

A warning to any political organization who participates in this trial - you will lose my vote

the moment I get a message from you.
From: Aaron Johnson

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 Google political spam pilot

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:38:02 AM

Please deny Google's requested pilot program.

This will surely damage the user experience. I can't imagine anyone wants more unsolicited

emails, and we're already inundated with political ads.

This will likely be abused by spammers that will use some political pretext to ensure their junk

mail is delivered to our inboxes.
From: BRUCE PETRIE

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 Google

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:02:16 AM

I can not believe that any sane person would find allowing political emails, especially

unsolicited emails, be acceptable. I already get too many unauthorized phone calls

and texts from politicians, PACs and "opinion polls". 

Please do not allow unsolicited political emails be delivered to my email inbox. If

someone wants to communicate/receive political emails, I believe that person should

authorize the email address of the sender in their email service.

Respectfully submitted

Bruce Petrie
From: J Lull

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:16:01 PM

Google's idea to allow unsolicited political email to bypass spam

filtering has to be one of the most assinine ideas I've ever heard of.

Such email is certainly spam, and needs to be treated as such. I've

found it to be some of the most intrusive, most objectionable, and least

useful spam I receive. If anything, it deserves heightened scrutiny, not

less scrutiny than other spam.

If you advise Google to do this, every other email provider performing

spam filtering will face extreme pressure to do the same -- and there

will be no practical way for *anyone* to escape it.

Do not approve this. It is a HORRIBLE idea.

Further, I object STRENUOUSLY to the absurdly short period you

established for comments on this proposal. You need to allow a

substantially longer comment period (1 month?) for ANY non-emergency

issue with such potentially huge consequences.

Regards,

J Lull
From: Patrick Phelps

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:58:22 PM

Regarding this recent proposal from Google, this seems like a bad idea. Political spam, as in non-opted into

communications by phone are a nuisance during election seasons and this would just exacerbate the problem. We

already see mass advertising related to political messaging which over emphasizes the amount of money a PAC or

candidate can generate as part of being elected and amplifying this trend is not something I would expect an agency

with the reputation of the FEC to get behind.

Thank you for your time
From: Adam Reynolds

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:06:01 PM

Hello,

I'd like to add my strong opposition to Google's request in AO 2022-14. I don't have novel

objections not raised previously by other commenters; however, as a citizen already concerned

about political scare-mongering, we do not need to make it easier for campaigns to send letters

to people, especially when those letters so often amount to emotional manipulation.

Adam A
From: Philip Gladstone

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:03:00 AM

Please do not permit google to launch a program to permit/require *any* emails to

automatically bypass the spam filters. In particular, do not permit "political" emails to bypass

spam filters.

Note that if some class of emails is given a free pass from spam filters, then malicious actors

will exploit that path and this will reduce the security of the American public. I realize that

Google say that they still won't permit malicious emails, but being able to avoid spam filters is

such a huge advantage to the bad actor, that they will sneak stuff through.

Philip Gladstone

Carlisle, MA
From: Louis LaRegina

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 5:55:50 PM

Please don't allow Google to bypass spam filters and fill our inboxes with yet more

spam and political propaganda.

Thank you

Louis LaRegina
From: Daniel Flaum

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14: No to allowing political mailings past spam filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:08:27 PM

Spam emails are precisely those emails which a recipient does not desire. The usefulness of

email is already greatly reduced by the enormous quantities of spam whose sending our

government takes no action to prevent. And now the government is considering permitting the

intentional hobbling of spam filters?

No, absolutely not. Spam, in all its forms, is an impediment to a free society. It wastes people's

time, it harms the vulnerable, and it has no upside whatsoever to counterbalance it's downsides.

The FEC should firmly assert what everyone already agrees: Spam is spam. It belongs in the

trash.

Thank you,

Daniel Flaum
From: A

To: AO

Subject: AOR 2022-14 Google political spam email proposal

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:57:58 PM

This proposal by Google is a horrific idea and will render my Gmail inbox useless. Spam is

bad enough as it is. If approved, I will switch away from Gmail, but what about all the people

with Android phones who don’t have that option? What about Chrome users? What about

people who use Gmail’s advanced protection features for high value accounts? What about

people who aren’t tech savvy at filtering through spam and scams, like the elderly?

I’m really disappointed in the public comment process. I couldn’t find any link to leave a

comment & found this email in the comments section of a news article, so I don’t even know

if it’s legitimate.

-A concerned voter & Gmail user
From: Jim Donnelly

To: AO

Subject: AOR 2022-14 objection

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:41:23 PM

I'd like to voice my opposition to permitting Google to bypass spam filters for political

messaging. There's already a universe of misleading information circulating in politicized

emails that are just covers for fundraising. It's not difficult to imagine that this proposal would

do more damage than putting Trump back on Twitter.

Please reject the proposal.

Jim Donnelly
From: Robert Price

To: AO

Subject: Comment for Google’s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:18:54 AM

Hard pass!

Any email that bypasses spam filters can be used by negative actors to gain access to user's

inboxes. Allowing political email to bypass the filters means that a bad actor would only need

access to "one" legitimate (or legitimate-looking) sender to infiltrate hundreds of inboxes,

without the user ever being aware of the threat.

And that's in addition to the fact that doing so would effectively discourage public interest in

politics even further.

Thank you for taking the time to read my comment.

Sincerely,

Rob
From: Daniel Meissner

To: AO

Subject: Comment for: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:16:18 AM

I request that you deny Google's request to do a pilot program where campaign ads go to

automatically bypass the spam filters and go to the main inbox. I am already inundated with

political campaign fliers in the mail for which they refuse to take me off the mail lists for. If I

want to receive updates or fliers I will request them. My spam filters are configured the way

they are for a reason. An inbox flooded with campaign ads will only waste my time and

degrade the service.

I have also already received in the mail ads for products that were part of a campaign flier and

have a strong suspicion this will be the case with new emails should this anti-user pilot

program be allowed.

Sincerely,

Daniel Meissner
From: Zar Quon

To: AO

Subject: Comment on "AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)"

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:01:07 AM

Hello,

I've read about proposed plans to exempt political email from Gmail spam filters recently. I

think whitelisting unwanted political email would be a terrible idea and would make legitimate

political email messages even more inaudible than they are, under a deluge of wrongly

whitelisted spam.

And as a non-US citizen, i think it would degrade the quality of the service and deluge non-US

citizens with unwanted mail.

Best wishes

Daniel
From: Joe Winn

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google AO 2022-14 (Political Emails)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:23:10 PM

Please accept this message as a formal comment against Google’s proposal to exempt political

emails from their spam filtering. All emails must abide by spam standards, and often political

emails do not. There’s no carve-out in CAN SPAM for political messaging, and approving

this for Google would have the effect of exempting it for everyone. Here are just a few

reasons why political emails must receive the same treatment as other messages:

- Users are often subscribed to them without approval (not opt-in, meaning they’re already

spam)

- Many have spam characteristics anyway

- With “dark money” groups, almost anyone can “send a political email”, making the spam

filter worthless

- Further creates division as the worst of false messaging will be delivered to inboxes, thus

getting more views and awareness

- A lot of political emails I’ve seen are more dangerous to the reader (and society at large) than

even your typical spam

- Thusly, if an email uses language that triggers spam filters, and is also one of these

inflammatory political messages, it needs to get downvoted by the filter - Not even because of

the messaging, but because it triggers spam filters.

If the user has not added the sender to their Contacts and it continues to be detected as spam,

that’s the sender’s problem.

This isn’t really a difficult decision. If a message triggers the spam filter, it goes in spam. 

Period. Doesn’t matter what it contains. This is a flat-out attempt by Google to enhance their

data collection and ad business through ensuring more inflammatory political messaging

reaches people.

Thank you for denying Google’s proposal (AO 2022-14).

Joe Winn

"It's the sound of the low tide, the smell of the rain, travelin' alone on my boat and my plane. Take it all in, it's as big as it 

seems."
From: Lucas Higginbotham

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:40:11 PM

Dear FEC,

I oppose the creation of a pilot program by Google to allow political candidates to bypass

regular spam detection algorithms. Users should not have to opt-out of unsolicited emails from

political campaigns, it adds an unnecessary burden to end users and in light of the increasing

prevalence of candidates making misleading or outright false statements in these emails, has

the potential to cause harm to our political processes. Political candidates should not be

exempt from the same restrictions imposed on all other email traffic to prevent unwanted

emails. As an end user of Google's gmail offering, I do not want to receive such unsolicited

messaging. 

The FEC should deny the pilot program request.

Sincerely,

Lucas Higginbotham
From: Ian Folkman

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Googles Request for Opinion on Pilot Program for Political Email spam bypass

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:54:54 AM

Dear FEC,

I just learned about Google's request to allow political email through a spam filter to user

inboxes. I am against allowing Google to do so and believe this would be a disservice to all

users of their, or any other email providers, services.

I am concerned about Google's willingness to profit from the political climate (as it changes)

or any political issue. To me, this also appears to compromise the integrity of their position

due to their ability to earn revenue from communication they place in email, as well as the

invasion of privacy as they learn and take advantage of what they know of a person's political

leanings. Their large userbase may also put them in a monopolistic position to take advantage

of this. 

Furthermore, I don't believe political groups, parties, PAC's etc... are trustworthy and that they

would take advantage of this to push opinions, positions, and bad rhetoric. It is my opinion

that no matter how much a person's vote should count, the money spent on advertising,

lobbying, and political ads outweigh any influence the public has on their politicians or

businesses in any meaningful way.

Additionally, based on the amount of spam, scam, and other nefarious types of

communications I receive in email and other telecommunications forms, I can't see how this

would not eventually be abused.

While I respect Google's right to run their email, I am against allowing them to do this, I don't

need any more unwarranted communications as it is.

Regards,

Ian Folkman 
From: Nathan Davis

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google"s request for opinion on political / spam pilot program

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:39:34 PM

Dear FEC,

On the topic of Google asking the commission on if they can implement a program that would

allow political candidates to send emails to users that would bypass spam filters and end up

directly in the user's primary inboxes--regardless of user preferences.

While Alphabet / Google, being a private business, is free as they wish to implement and

adjust their products as they wish--they should respect a time honored fundamental of

electronic mail since the 1990's--the spam button. If a user defines a set / type of electronic

communication as harassing or annoying, they should be able to mark it as spam and have like

messages filtered in the future.

The impetus of the Federal Elections Commission should be to encourage and enforce

sensible standards in elections and campaigns that protect the citizenry---not opening the

flood gates by supporting their proposal. Allowing campaign or political emails to bypass

established and user designated filters will encourage worse actors to reach people that they

would not have otherwise. Such bad actors would almost certainly include malicious actors

that would submit fraudulent paperwork to run for office with the purpose of running a mass

phishing campaign through email that was newly exempt from filtering.

On a personal note, I am already swamped with unwanted emails that get around current

filters and can only imagine how much this problem will be worsened if an unlimited number

of campaign / issue emails swamp my inbox. Please do not support or aid Alphabet / Google's

motion.

Thank you for your consideration,

Nathan Davis
From: Max Callahan

To: AO

Subject: Comment on political messaging bypass of spam filter - Gmail

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:30:44 PM

Hello,

Please do not support the bypass of spam filters by unsolicited political messaging!!

The vitriol being spewed by the main political parties of our country negatively effects my

mental and emotional health. Do not give them a free pass to bombard my email inbox with

their propaganda and requests for financial assistance.

Regards

Max
From: Ted Rodgers

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:10:12 AM

Dear FEC,

Please give a HARD NO response to Google’s request to permit political candidate/groups emails to be exempted

from being routed through SPAM filtering and instead being delivered to inboxes.

I understand there are a handful of legit considerations on the issue, by both Google and candidate groups that boil

down to a few points:

 

 1) alleged bias - groups saying they are unfairly filtered

 2) actual bias - blips causing filtering

 3) users’ wishes - what users actually want

 4) protection of consumers and the election process

Google likely wishes to step aside from accusations / liability of bias. Doing so removes them from litigation and

public slander potential by disgruntled candidates; however, from a both technology and user experience / protection

side, the million pound elephant in the room is complete abuse of the proposal and email as a whole:

 1) volume (flooding inboxes)

 2) choice (citizens being allowed to choose to not receive the mails at all)

 3) malicious content. 

Two of those points especially need clarification while choice is self-explanatory. First, the volume issue is an

artifact or result of modern technology and the sheer count of mails that can be sent by meshed groups per day

simply by sharing of lists. What may appear or be sales-pitched as an “innocent” attempt of one campaign to send

out a mail could in fact result in a literal million mails by sending multiple messages per hour/day/week or even

minute and then also be compounded by the sharing of distribution lists. No one wants that.

Regarding content, we saw throughout last and previous election cycles and in general use of email at all, emails

often contain facts or content that are borderline untrue. factually not true at all, or malicious by design; some are all

three. By malicious, I mean the content could contain links to data scraping cites, abuse permissions on the mailreceiving application on the device to scrape or alter data, or, for example, execute code on the receivers systems to

send additional unlettered mailings.

Removing spam filtering would strip back protections that safeguard American citizens from highjacking, phishing,

data farming, and other undesired acts as well as exposing millions of us to potentially carefully crafted but factually

inaccurate spam mails. Additionally, it would open the door for nearly anything to be presented as a political email

to ensure a guaranteed path to email consumers.

Rather than granting any exemption form filtering of political mails, there should be mandatory filtering of them by

both Google and every other provider of emails. Let each sender be subject to scrutiny regarding their mail volumes

sent and their frequency, the safety of the content itself, and even fact checking of their materials, to forcing a

clearly-overdue level of honesty on campaigns, candidates, and those communicating for them.

Thank you for your time,

Ted Rodgers
From: Jon Vahsholtz

To: AO

Subject: comments on Google spam by-pass

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:54:27 PM

I hope you will deny Google's request to do a pilot program where campaign ads go directly

to people's inboxes

and bypass their spam filters. Google's proposal sounds way too likely to lead to abuse and

lead to far more unwanted political soliciting.

Thank you,

Jon Vahsholtz
From: Michael Millspaugh

To: AO

Subject: Do not allow emails through the SPAM filter

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:34:09 AM

No matter the source, no email type should be given a "free pass" through SPAM filtering.

Who decides whats political?

-- 

------------------------------------------------

Michael Millspaugh

http://www.tks-designs.com

From: Paul Demmitt

To: AO

Subject: Don"t let Google pass through election email.

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:58:57 PM

Please don't allow Google to bypass filters for unsolicited email on behalf of

political candidates. If someone wants to get information from a candidate or

campaign, they can go to the website of the politician and sign up.

This is really another form of advertising, which, if unrequested, I believe, is

considered spam.

We already get enough junk as it is and can't seem to stop it.

-Paul

Paul Demmitt

____________________________
From: Andy Melichar

To: AO

Subject: Gmail and Political Emails

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:21:35 AM

I think the board should deny Google's request to allow political emails to bypass spam filters.

Allowing this exception would set a dangerous precedent that certain types of emails are

immune to being blocked. This will undoubtedly embolden not only political groups to

increase the amount of unsolicited email they send, but it will also give hackers yet another

entrypoint they could take advantage of to get into our inboxes.

This is not a feature I want or would ever ask for.

Sincerely,

Andrew Melichar

Ypsilanti, MI
From: Paul W Jones

To: AO

Subject: Gmail and spam filters on political mail

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:21:47 AM

This is just a quick comment that I would prefer to be able to turn off (or at least put in a

folder) all political e-mail, particularly solicitations or requests for money or to take surveys.

The same would apply actually to unsolicited TXTs on phones and phone calls. There should

be an easy Opt-out, and if offenders ignore it, some ability to demand payment or a fine for the

offending communication. All political e-mail should also be forced to have an accurate email source, so as to help with the spam filters. Too many politicians tend to exempt

themselves from normal no-contact type rules, that needs to stop.

-- 
From: Chad von Nau

To: AO

Subject: Gmail political email spam bypass

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:04:08 AM

I don’t think it’s a good idea for political emails to skip the spam filter. I find these emails to be an unpleasant part

of the political process. I avoid donating to political candidates that I would otherwise like to, just to stay off their

mailing lists. I see skipping the spam filter as a license to political organizations to make their emails even

spammier.

Please recommend against this.

Thank you,

Chad von Nau
From: Chris Tennant

To: AO

Subject: Gmail political mail filter

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:35:17 PM

NO to forcing gmail to exempt political emails from default spam filters. If they weren’t written like spam they

wouldn’t be flagged as spam.
From: Matt Walsh

To: AO

Subject: Gmail request to deliver political mail vs allowing spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:19:16 AM

Please ensure the rights of every American to make their own decision

about what email they wish to receive and which they wish to discard

as "spam."

Politicians are not God and don't deserve extraordinary access to my email.

Thank you.

--

Matthew J. Walsh, MD

Rio Rancho, NM
From:

To: AO

Subject: Gmail spam filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:16:20 PM

Hi. Apparently, Google wants permission to have it spam filters allow political spam.

I DON’T WANT POLITICAL SPAM (i.e., unsolicited political email).

Please don’t allow them to do that.

In fact, I think you should be much more aggressive with all unsolicited email advertising and other spam.

Charles Kline
From: Michael Hagen

To: AO

Subject: GMail spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:55:11 PM

Quote (yes I did read the prospectus):

From the perspective of the G mail user, for the first message the user

receives from a pilot participant,

Gmail will display a prominent notification asking the user whether they

wish to continue receiving

messages from the sender. Unless the user opts out in response to the first

email, subsequent emails from

that sender will land in the inbox for that individual user, unless and until a

user later opts out.

While subsequent messages from that sender will not have an explicit

notification attached to them, the

Gmail user will continue to 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. Gmail users can

also easily express their

preference to no longer receive messages as the pilot will require a “oneclick” unsubscribe button on all...

From my perspective, I'd rather political spam go directly to Trash, with an

Auto-Delete. My Gmail address is a disposable account.

M hagen
From: George Mozurkewich

To: AO

Subject: Gmail, politics, and spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:10:25 AM

Do not let Google do it!

It often feels like my phone no longer belongs to me, thanks to all the

unsolicited calls. Some calls violate the rules -- criminals often

violate the rules -- while others are actually permitted by the rules.

Email benefits from having a mechanism to reduce spam. If you start

allowing email broadcasters ('spammers') to bypass that mechanism, it

will feel like my email no longer belongs to me either.

Where will I go next to avoid all the self-serving noise that bombards

our society?

From: david ben michael

To: AO

Subject: Google and Bypassing Spam Filtration

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:11:34 PM

To the longsuffering employees and policymakers at the Federal Election Commission, 

As a longtime user of Gmail and a citizen reasonably active in the electoral life of our country,

I think allowing Google the discretion to bypass spam filtration for campaign materials is a

bad idea. I receive emails from both sides of the political spectrum, and the emails are

increasingly obnoxious. They continually assert that my funds are necessary to prevent the

collapse of civilization (nevermind that recent developments have enabled candidates to

legally make money off their own campaigns). They continually misconstrue events, policies,

and people. Campaigns and fundraisers should be competing for attention by providing better

quality content. Instead, they increasingly engage in scummy tactics and have now asked

Google to lower the bar for them. Allowing Google to bypass spam filtration on behalf of

political campaigns will only accelerate this bad trend.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

David Korlin

Sevierville, TN
From: Jeremy Trum

To: AO

Subject: Google and Gmail spam filter for political messaging

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:51:39 PM

No, thank you.

I understand that some Republicans have used Gmail's Spam filter as a political discussion

point to continue convincing credulous Americans that Google, and other tech companies,

have an unfair bias towards Democrats and that this filter has been blocking Republican

emails (while presumably not blocking Democrat emails). It's a bogus argument as the tool has

been blocking all of that traffic (or attempting to).

Google's proposal to let all political emails through the Spam filter won't help anything

though. Republicans will continue finding nonstories to attack tech about so long as the

Republicans feel that they're not completely in power.("Conspiracy theories are for losers.")

Additionally, as has been written elsewhere, letting political email through the filter will

increase the amount of scams that Gmail users will see, increasing the financial burden of

normal Americans due to criminal activity

Instead of approving this proposal, please disapprove it. Then, please find a way to reverse

approval allowing political phone messages to bypass Do Not Call lists.

Thank you, and Regards,
From: Terry Maraccini

To: AO

Subject: Google and political ads

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:30:29 PM

Fuck no.

Terry

Sent from my iPhone
From: Mike Hender

To: AO

Subject: Google and political emails

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:28:02 AM

To whom it may concern:

I can not express strongly enough how much I do not want political ads being able to bypass

Google's spam filters. Having political ads inflicted upon me via radio, tv, and internet ads is

bad enough as it is, without it invading my personal email account. It removes any choice I

have as to what content I receive there. Please do not allow this to happen.

Thank you
From: Dallman Ross on behalf of 

To: AO

Subject: Google Email opt-out

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:03:51 PM

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have heard about a plan to push UNSOLICITED political email past GMAIL spam filters. I am

abhorred by this plan. I urge you to decline to adopt it!

Sincerely,

Dallman Ross
From: Aaron McCormack

To: AO

Subject: Google Email

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:41:57 AM

Hello,

Please refuse Google's ridiculous request regarding political emails bypassing spam filters.

I do not want any unsolicited email, phone calls, text messages or physical mailers from anyone. Politicians should

not receive special consideration. For regular joes, that behavior is called harassment.

--

sent from my mobile
From: Rick Hinojos

To: AO

Subject: Google pilot program regarding political spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:33:55 PM

Political spam is spam, full stop.

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-political-emails-spam-public-comment-fec-ruling2022-7
From:

To: AO

Subject: Google Pilot Program Request

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:42:23 PM

To Whom it May Concern,

No.

Absolutely not.

Politicians already get enough carve-outs and special treatment. Now they want to fill our alreadyoverflowing inboxes whenever they please? This is just going to make people even more

disengaged/disinterested. (Of course I’m sure some people want that because only their crazies will

pay attention anymore).

Tell Google NO, don’t let “political” emails through spam filters. If people want political emails, they

sign up for them (usually—sometimes if you donate to Cause A then you start getting emails from

Cause B but it’s because they’re generally related).

Gmail became popular in part due to its excellent spam filtering. Now Google wants to punch a

hole. Tell them NO.
From: Vanessa Pinter

To: AO

Subject: Google political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:54:54 AM

Please under any circumstance DO NOT ALLOW Google to let political spam bypass their filters. They’ve used our

crowd-sourced feedback to for years to determine what emails we hate: they know already we don’t like getting

unsolicited political emails. We are already getting huge amounts of spam from political entities tangentially related

to some cause we showed interest in! Our emails will be absolutely unusable if randos with a couple dollars can bulk

spam millions.

It is also a threat to our peaceful American society. Viciously anti-gay, racist, radical-Christian-extremist

propaganda and untruthful personal attacks are already being used as political tools on TV and the internet. Russia

will continue to attack us with black ops lies. Literal incitement to violence will fill the inboxes of the vulnerable

and the elderly, those least able to resist it.

Rich professionals will find a way to filter or pay for better email while others will have to wallow through hundreds

of manipulative propaganda spams on their phones to find their bills.

This looks like a transparent effort to either profit off of letting certain groups through or to drive away FREE users

of gmail.

Phones and texting are already becoming almost useless because of phishing, scam farms, and the avalanche of

unsolicited political crap that comes around election season. Please do not let Google do the same for gmail.

Thank you,

Vanessa Pinter

Colorado
From: Patrick O"Shea

To: AO

Subject: Google political spam bypass

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:19:19 AM

Hello,

I'm writing because I learned about google's proposal to bypass spam filters when it comes to

political emails.

This is an absolutely terrible idea. Not just from the point of view of useability of gmail.

Imagine every time you opened up your account you had tens to hundreds of political

messages making it difficult to parse which are the actual emails you should care about and

respond to. The effects on productivity alone would be negative.

Then there is the fact that in today's current climate, political messaging rhetoric has become

hysterical. Imagine how many more people may have showed up to the capital on January 6th

2021 if these false election claims had made it to the inboxes of millions. Instead of a large

group of fringe rioters, it may have been a much worse situation with many more people

involved.

Please do not allow this to happen.

Thank you

-Patrick O'Shea
From: Rosemary Brisco

To: AO

Subject: Google political spam program

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:16:19 PM

I am locked into Gmail with 10 years of data. This proposal from Google to allow political

email to bypass spam filters sounds like election interference.

I pay for Gmail but I don’t pay for spammy political ads trying to influence me. Gosh, this is

right up there with the Facebook shenanigans.

Please don’t let this happen.

ROSEMARY BRISCO

TOTHEWEB LLC

photo
From:

To: AO

Subject: Google Request Political Emails

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:46:45 PM

Dear Sirs/Madams

 About Google's request to allow "political emails" to bypass spam

filters.

 ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! It is NOT for Google to make this determination.

 If I have determined that political email is spam, it is spam. It

is not for Google or ANY other party to decide otherwise!

M Ray

Fremont, Ca

94555

--

Ad Astra per Aspera
From: Jeff Nolan

To: AO

Subject: Google request to handle political email

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:41:16 AM

Dear FEC,

Are you fucking insane? Giving Google the green light to be an arbiter of political email, and the effective clearing

house, is tantamount to asking Charles Manson to babysit your kids. Don’t do it.

Sincerely,

Every American Who Doesn’t Work for Google’s Lobbyists
From: First Last

To: AO

Subject: Google request

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:02:52 AM

Regarding Google’s request to allow persons/entities in any way associated with politics to

skirt spam filters:

NO, we are nauseated enough by politicians in our daily lives, our inboxes are not public TV

where we don’t have to tune in.

Nice day,

Jules
From: Bruce Hafford

To: AO

Subject: Google spam filter

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:07:56 PM

Hello,

This is in regards to Google's proposal for political email to bypass spam filters.

20 years ago, when politicians still had some level of decency and commitment to public

service, I might have agreed with this idea. Email ads in previous eras might have been

informative and useful. But given the garbage that much of today's politics has become, I'm

strongly against this proposal. If politicians want to reach people, they can craft thoughtful ads

and other communications, and ask people to sign up to receive their press releases. There's no

reason they should be able to clutter my inbox with every hot-button issue that they can make

a buck off of.

Regards,

B. Hafford

Tennessee
From: Mark Tiffany

To: AO

Subject: google spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:10:21 AM

Political emails are the vast majority of the spam I receive. None of these are opt in none of these are people I am

interested in funding and they're often quite misleading both in terms of the content and the intent of the

communication.

These emails are primarily for fundraising purposes are unsolicited making on the very definition of spam and

unwanted communications. I have no concerns about googles perceived liberal bias it's bullshit
From: Bryan ONeal

To: AO

Subject: googles pilot program for political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:10:29 AM

Please do not allow google to let political emails bypass spam filters. I already receive

numerous political emails from candidates and elected officials that I did not sign up to

receive. Politicians should not be exempt from following the same rules as everyone else when

it comes to mass marketing unsolicited emails.

Thank You,

Bryan ONeal
From: Nathan Yinger

To: AO

Subject: Google"s proposal to allow political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:20:46 AM

Political campaign e-mails are obnoxious and should be considered spam, which is why they

currently are. Every person I have ever heard speak about campaign e-mails disliked them,

with the sole exception of the campaigners themselves.

~Nathan Yinger
From: Alex Hurd

To: AO

Subject: Google"s request for political emails

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:33:32 AM

Dear FEC,

I recently read that Google has asked the FEC to allow them to pass along political and

campaign emails without going through a spam filter. I believe that this is a terrible idea and

should be rejected immediately.

Alex Hurd
From: october skye

To: AO

Subject: I DO NOT WANT UNSOLICITED POLITICAL EMAIL *EVER*

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:10:39 PM

Regardless of party or position, I will consider this an unwanted intrusion of SPAM in my

inbox. Political email of any sort should appropriately and automatically by filtered by Gmail

as SPAM, thus saving me and others the time and annoyance of individually flagging every

nuisance message of this kind and sending it to the trash.

Furthermore, I've created Gmail accounts for elderly people living in poverty who may be

victimized by contributing funds they cannot afford IF they are bombarded by these unwanted

emails (politicians are always seeking $$).

J Skye Smith

Arizona
From: Ed Case

To: AO

Subject: Keep campaign emails filtered

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:31:26 PM

I do not ever want to see political crap in my inbox as it always full of lies and just needs to continue not be

cluttering up inboxes.

Ed Case

Sent from my iPad

From: Kathy Godfrey

To: AO

Subject: No to Google"s request to let political spam bypass spam filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:28:59 PM

I already regularly get unsolicited spam from candidates that I have

*never* supported and would never support, some of which already

gets past spam filters. If you give Google the green light for this

"pilot" program (which we all know would then become permanent),

the floodgates will truly open, and many of us who don't receive

a great deal of daily email could easily find ourselves wading through

the 90% of garbage in our inboxes that would be political spam 

(or scams purporting to Google to be political messaging) simply to read 

our "real" email.

It's bad enough that we generally have opt-out (and not always

honored opt-out) instead of opt-in as a default as they do in Europe.

Anyone who wants this stuff can always scan through the Spam

folder and mark it as "Not Spam" before clearing the Spam folder.

Katherine Godfrey

Medford, MA
From: Patrick Hayden

To: AO

Subject: no unsolicited political email in my GMAIL inbox!

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:14:24 PM

I absolutely do not want unsolicited political email in my GMAIL Inbox! I use Google largely

because of the anti-spam features / capabilities by Google and unsolicited political emails are

the definition of SPAM.

What a horrible idea!
From: P. H. Campbell

To: AO

Subject: Opinion re: the proposed pilot program exempting political e-mail ads from Google e-mail spam filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:52:58 PM

Dear FEC,

It came to my attention through an article published in arstechnica.com

that Google has solicited your opinion regarding their implementation of

a pilot program that would allow unsolicited e-mail from political

candidates and causes to bypass Google's Spam filters and go directly to

their Gmail inboxes.

There is absolutely no wisdom in allowing this to happen. There are a

myriad of reasons why spam filters exist, but the main purpose is to

prevent low quality and dangerous e-mails from getting into in-boxes

where recipients may be harassed, offended or their data compromised by

unscrupulous pretenders using a political front to spread malware and

viruses.

Spam filters allow high quality items through to let the user decide if

any of them are, indeed, spam. But they have to clear a certain bar to

be let through. That bar is where spam filters are set. Anything below

that bar should, for the sake of the recipient, be blocked.

I ran an IT support business focusing on SOHO and home users for 20

years. It's my professional opinion that people need to have better

security for their computers, be it home or business. Most computer

users are not very cogent of the threats that are out there, largely

because most haven't had direct experience with the most nasty of them.

That's because of the spam filters removing the worst of them from even

getting to in-boxes.

The Postal Service screens the U.S. mail for bad packages and mail

addressed to government officials to intercept threats to those

officials. Spam filters do that for the recipients of those e-mails.

Legitimate, high-quality and comparatively safe e-mails get through.

The bad ones don't.

There are 1.5 billion Gmail users in the world, a good share of them in

the United States over which your opinions hold a huge amount of sway

regarding their safety, and sanity. No one likes getting political ads

or political spam from causes. We are inundated by falsehoods, lies,

propaganda, hate and division in these political ads. Those shouldn't

even make it to the in-boxes of the recipients, even if the recipient

can mark it as spam.

The spammers will simply change the e-mail headers and send the same

toxic garbage again. Spam filters of Google's caliber look at the

garbage, and empty it before it arrives.

I implore you to tell Google this is not only a bad idea, it's a

dangerous idea. A danger to the recipent, and a danger to the very

fabric of democracy we are trying to keep from unraveling largely thanks

to political causes that in other countries from people who employ the
same tactics would be considered terrorists.

Please don't tell Google they can open that Pandora's box and unleash

that kind of toxicity on Gmail users.

Sincerely,

P. H. Campbell
From: Bob Sireno

To: AO

Subject: Please NO spam bypass

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 5:54:50 PM

This terrible idea to allow political emails to bypass spam filters smacks of early tyranny. No

thank you.
From: Mark

To: AO

Subject: Please, please, please: Do NOT allow unsolicited political emails

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:42:35 PM

We are in an age of information overload that is becoming more and more extreme every day.

Under NO circumstances is it acceptable for anyone to be permitted to send unsolicited

emails. Regardless of content, but especially and even more so political (which is all

propaganda and usually devoid of any truth) emails, unsolicited emails of any kind

should NOT be allowed.

Let those who insist on trying this out to pay for real advertising services and DISallow the

abuse of fostensibly) free services like email to become polluted with yet more sewage (and

that's unkind to sewage).

Please take Nancy Reagan's advice: Just say NO.

Thank you.

Mark Richter

Oceanside, CA
From: M Liles

To: AO

Subject: Political ads to bypass spam filters?

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:24:37 PM

Why not just make it easier and filter out legitimate users and let everything else in? It may

have no effect on this specific issue but here's what this has convinced me to do: I'm going to

call my U.S. senators and tell them that I SUPPORT SENATE BILL S.2992, the American

Innovation and Choice Online Act. That's the one that Google and Big Tech is saying will

break your phone, end Amazon Prime and cause locusts to blot out the sun.

If we can't win here, maybe we can at least win there!

Take That, Big G.

Bregal Tarnum
From: Bruce Hamilton

To: AO

Cc: Bruce Hamilton

Subject: Political email and spam filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:17:01 PM

Friends,

Politicians have plenty of avenues for speaking to me -- TV, radio, billboards, newspaper ads, etc. For all of those I

can change the channel, keep my eyes on the road, unsubscribe from the newspaper, etc. My own inbox is different:

if I shut that off, I shut myself off from people I *want* to talk to.

It's not realistic to say I can delete/ignore spam email: there is no limit to the number of people (note that we're not

limiting this to the US) who would like to get my attention, and no limit to the number of times per day that each

one would like to do that (remember that sending email is free). I already have to scroll past about a dozen

messages I don't care about per message that I do, every single time I look at my mailbox. Adding a few hundred,

several times a day, is not a matter of "inconvenience" -- it gets into serious time, and a likelihood that I'll

accidentally scroll past, say, a note from my bank that I'm overdrawn.

We already have good software tools for filtering what I want to see from what I don't -- filters crafted by experts

and tuned in use. PLEASE, PLEASE let them continue to do that.

 -Bruce Hamilton
From: Jo Ann Snover

To: AO

Subject: Political emails should not be exempt from spam rules

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:16:57 PM

There is no reason that political emails should be treated any differently from other unsolicited or junk email. If I

want emails from parties or politicians I can easily sign up for them. Do not allow politicians, political parties or

similar entities to be treated as a special case. They need to follow the rules that all organizations do.

Jo Ann Snover
From: Timothy G

To: AO

Subject: Political emails

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:12:38 AM

Send to separate politics folder or spam folder. Unsolicited email & calls is not free speech.

Right to free speech does not force people to listen!
From: Mike Broderick

To: AO

Subject: political messages bypassing google email filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:19:52 PM

I think Google’s proposal to allow unsolicited political emails to bypass spam filters is wrong. Who will get the

bypass after that? Soon everyone will bypass them and spm filters will be useless. Let each person decide what

emails they want to see, not Google.

Mike Broderick
From: Daniel Domene

To: AO

Subject: Political spam - AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:30:24 AM

For the sanity of the American people do not, under any circumstance, force spam filters or

their administrators to allow any more political emails to pass. We’re already subjected to

massive scams from political parties as is (Read: one-time donations that were actually

recurring, or emails asking for money pretending to care about the latest mass shooting). We

deserve protection from government overreach, and that should include the activities of

political parties.

Daniel D, Round Rock, TX
From: Kim Kirschman

To: AO

Subject: political spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:09:47 PM

Please do NOT allow political emails to bypass spam filers.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Charlie Romer

To: AO

Subject: RE: Advisory Opinion Request (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:15:53 AM

Hello,

Please do not allow political emails to bypass the Google spam filters. Politicians (or PACs) should have

to adhere to the same requirements as any other sender in order to not be marked as spam. If political or

campaign emails can bypass spam filtering then that opens up the floodgates for all sorts of gaming the

system (eg. spammers or other nefarious agents running for office or posing as political figures simply to

bypass spam filtering). This would degrade the quality of the Gmail service that so many people rely upon

for communication. Political groups or campaigns should have the onus to create emails that do not get

caught as spam just like everyone else.

Spam filtering should be applied equally across ALL email senders.

Regards,

Charlie Romer

Mass.
From: Pete Molina

To: AO

Subject: RE: Advisory Opinion Request (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:13:19 AM

I urge you to please please deny google's request to spam users inboxes with political drible,

and misinformation. If one wants to receive email from parties, they can sign up to receive it

or if they want to receive it in their primary box, they can go to the spam folder and mark it

not spam.. the current system works, rather than have to mark tens of hundreds of emails "as

spam". There is enough misinformation in this country to have to

endure unsolicited misinformation. Again, i beg you to please deny google's request to

allow unsolicited political email to be sent to the users primary inbox.

thank you

Pete Molina
From: Sean Wilson

To: AO

Subject: Re: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:21:03 PM

Correction: That was meant for the FEC. But also, if the FCC is involved, then by all means,

pass it onto the organization.

On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 5:19 PM Sean Wilson > wrote:

Dear FCC admins,

Please do not authorize Google's pilot program. The sheer number of political ads in every

other media is already too much. And unless I specifically sign up for political emails, I

don't want any of it in my inbox. It's marked spam because it's mostly grifting and scams.

Look at Trump's grift: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105279623/jan-6-committeetrump-campaign-legal-defense-fund

Thank you,

Sean
From:

To: AO

Subject: Re: Google"s request for an opinion about their plan to let political email bypass spam filtering

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:08:19 AM

To the United States Federal Election Commission

Re: Google's request to let political email bypass spam filtering

I will be direct and straight to the point: I am strongly against allowing Google to relax spam

filtering to permit unsolicited political email to be delivered to my email inbox.

Unsolicited email of any type is SPAM! Google should be applauded for the good work they

have done in recent years to prevent spam from being delivered to users’ inboxes. Spam is not

only annoying, it is also a dangerous scam vector, hence Google’s admiral work to prevent

deliver to users’ inboxes.

Voters in the USA are already bombarded by unsolicited TEXT messages from politicians and

their operatives asking for donations during the election seasons. There is literally no way to

verify if the text messages are legitimate, versus being scams trying to rip off the everyday

citizen. Adding email spam to that heap only exacerbates the problem.

Kindly to the common person a favor. Do not allow Google to relax spam filters for political

email, or any other type of unsolicited email, aka SPAM or SCAM mail.

Best Regards, Arch McDaniel

From: Ross, Jacob

To: AO

Subject: Special Treatment for Election Email Spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:09:47 AM

To Whom It May Concern,

Please do not permit special treatment of political email.

If one political party wants to keep its email out of the trash, then it should stop spreading

lies and misinformation.

The idea that a FEC should step in to protect the communication of a group of people who

plotted an insurrection against the government is ludicrous.

I exercised my right to free speech by flagging their email for what it is, and I ask that you

leave any who might complain about it to the mercy of the free market.

Regards,

Ross

Jacob Ross

Your technology consulting partner
From: Ron Kell

To: AO

Subject: Unsolicited political email

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:11:11 PM

I do not want any unsolicited emails FROM any political party or PAC delivered to any of my

email accounts, especially my private gmail account.

Ron Kell

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
From: Zig Justice

To: AO

Subject: Unsolicited political emails in my inbox? NO!

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:20:54 PM

This is a terrible idea for a number of reasons:

1. The increase in time that users will need to spend marking unsolicited emails as spam or

deleting them

2. The potential for the spread of toxic, divisive misinformation is incredibly high, given that

political emails are primarily hyperbolic rhetoric designed with the sole purpose of driving

fundraising for campaigns than informing voters about the actual platforms and issues that

candidates stand for (and that is before taking into account the extreme political divide that

already exists in this nation and grows deeper every day)

3. The potential for abuse by malicious actors that infiltrate political campaign IT

infrastructure opens up average users to an increased risk of being phished, infected with

malware, or other negative outcomes

4. Engaging in any kind of political activity online, such as signing a petition, ALREADY

automatically subscribes users, without information or consent, to a large number of political

email lists

5. Legitimate (i.e., solicited) emails run a much greater risk of being lost in the mix as, since

automated sending of email is orders of magnitude easier than robocalling, there will

inevitably be an insurmountable flood of political email

I could go on.

In short, don't allow this.

--Concerned Citizen

Milwaukee, WI
1

From: Gabe Goldberg >

Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:21 PM

To: AO

Subject: STOP UNSOLICITED POLITICAL EMAIL IN GMAIL INBOXES!

Do not allow Google to open Pandora's Box on people by allowing campaign/political emails to bypass spam filters!

‐‐  

Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc.       gabe@gabegold.com

           

LinkedIn:

https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fgabegold&data=

05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7C594a44885e1646a2ba1808da645d3dce%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0

%7C1%7C637932648880895290%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1h

aWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=GDhlh2FBzonbv6CghPXMquhi7Q3ewXreZ7MpYf6yK4U%3D&

amp;reserved=0            Twitter: GabeG0
1

From: Luis F. Ortiz < >

Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:37 AM

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (GOOGLE LLC)

I am adamantly opposed to permitting emails from candidate committees, political party committees, and political

action committees to bypass spam filters.   

As it is, I have received unsolicited emails, phone calls, and text messages and requests to be removed from their lists

are either not immediately honored or my information is simply forwarded to another campaign being handled by the

marketing organization that is handling the logistics for those entities.

The FEC should not approve this pilot program:  

https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fec.gov%2Ffiles%2Flegal%2Faos%2F2022‐

14%2F202214R_1.pdf&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7C2314ab310a7243ede24408da64e590c1%7Cee91fa706

c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637933234426634881%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAw

MDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Eu6YEgK3yV99rp7sX40skr

2VShXsFfVGMDwUZEivzgQ%3D&reserved=0

Luis Ortiz

Boston, Massachusetts