FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20463

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

The Commission 

Office of the Commission Secretary 

July 14, 2022

AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) 43 Individual Comments

Attached are 43 individual comments on AO 2022-14 (Google LLC).

Attachment 
From: Rick Krementz

To: AO

Subject: Allowing political email to evade filtering

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:59:40 AM

Please do NOT allow/require Google and others to override spam and other user filters to

permit political operatives access to email boxes, especially when the receiver has

previously identified such mail as undesirable.

Our country is already overwhelmed with erroneous, false, and misleading political

sewage emails, and this has caused immense tribalism that has led to violence. Worse, much

of the "political content" is of foreign origin often seeking to disru[pt our democracy.

The FCC should work on stopping all telephone spam calls, not opening even more venom

into our democracy by relaxing spam filtering.

Sincerely,

Rick Krementz

Criehaven, Maine
From: Brian Popp

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) comment

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:42:27 PM

Please do not allow Google to bypass spam filtering for political emails. The gross exaggeration

of political discourse is a severe discouragement to political participation. Forcing political

spam into people's mailboxes will make it worse.

Thanks!
From: Jason Johns

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:10:46 PM

Please do not go ahead with the plan to allow political emails to bypass spam filters.

As a user of GMail, I already have a lot of political emails from multiple groups, liberal,

centrist, conservative and others that make it past spam filters and end up in my inbox. Of all

the political spam that ends up in my inbox, not one single email have I ever signed up for.

This is the very definition of SPAM. Most do not include the required unsubscribe link and of

the ones that do, the groups just change the from address and continue to send their emails as

well as selling your email as verified to other groups.

Thank you for your time. 
From: Michael Desilets

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:57:40 AM

There are enough issues with unsolicited emails being sent out that laws have been written and

companies exist to combat it. Allowing any company or individual a blanket permission to

send unsolicited messages, spam, is ridiculous. If a person is interested in receiving messages

related to politics, or any other interest, they are more than capable of requesting to be added

to a mailing group.

There is enough spam already, do not add to the problem.
From: Keith LeBlanc

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:40:16 AM

I am against Google allowing political campaign emails to by pass spam filtering directly to

the inbox.

The main concern is due to numerous political campaigns for a single candidate. The onus will

be placed on the end user to verify if it is a direct reach out from the political campaigner or

one of the many supporter campaigns dealing mostly for special interests.

Also of concern is a special interest campaign going to be allowed through as well?

Due to the current political climate, unsolicited campaign emails could potentially skew the

intended bias desired by political actors maliciously abusing the proposed change.

The digital world is the ideal platform for exploitation of abuse with the hidden anonymity by

obscuring of their digital footprint and forging of legitimate credentials. 

The potential for damage will already done on such a large scale, since there is no way Google

could properly vet each email prior to being sent.

If Google wants this to happen in order to appear unbiased, they are capable of creating a

“Political” folder similar to the spam folder and let the end user decide to view the emails.

Also, if each email is properly vetted to ensure it is from the trusted source without potential

tampering or hacking from the originator.

Also not clearly stated, does this apply to the paid business face of gmail users or just the free

gmail users.

Sincerely,

Keith LeBlanc

Typed on my mobile device, I apologize for grammatical, autocorrect and punctuation errors

in advance.
From: Mike Wolfe

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC).

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:51:23 PM

I am in opposition to Google’s pilot program to allow political emails to bypass spam

filters. This is a bad idea. It is difficult enough to manage the items that do get by

spam filters and to have disinformation from untrustworthy political candidates added

to that could make email during campaign seasons unusable. The massive volume of

paid snail mail that I get at home from candidates would be dwarfed by the huge

amounts of free material likely to come by email. I also worry about my parents who

are susceptible to bad information coming from disreputable sources. This would

definitely make elections more divisive than they already are.

Respectfully,

Mike Wolfe
From: ubertakter

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:02:39 PM

In regards to Google's program: if the FEC has the power to stop or in any way curtail

Google's program, do so. I am adamantly opposed to this ridiculous idea.

Google's summary of the program includes this:

"Google requests the Commission’s opinion on a proposal to launch a pilot program for

authorized

candidate committees, political party committees, and leadership political action committees

that are registered with the Federal Election Commission during the 2022 election cycle

(“Eligible Participants”) and that meet objective security criteria, such as implementation of

technical authentication standards. Once an Eligible Participant is accepted into the pilot, as

long as its emails do not contain content prohibited by Gmail’s terms of service such as

phishing, malware, or illegal content and comply with program requirements, those emails

will not be affected by forms of spam detection to which they would otherwise be subject. The

placement of those emails into users’ inbox folders or spam folders will instead rely on direct

feedback from each user. The user may provide this feedback upon receiving the first or a

subsequent email from the sender."

Given the nature of what our political "system" has devolved into, it seems likely users will be

inundated with emails from many sources, not just a few. While the user's will have the ability

to mark such correspondence as spam, there are so many potentially qualifying organizations

that this will place an undue burden on the users. Also, it is obvious that Google seeks to profit

from this program as it will no doubt charge political organizations for this service.

More to the point are statements made in section 1 under "Proposed Pilot Program":

"This pilot program achieves a number of commercial goals. It will assist Google with its

commercial objective of improving the Gmail user experience, which, in turn, enhances the

Google brand. The pilot program will test whether users receive more email they want from

bulk senders who participate in the program, which we expect would result in a higher

deliverability rate for those senders, possibly without increasing user complaints about

unwanted email."

If I wanted to get email for these political organizations, I would sign up for them directly. I

absolutely do not want to deal with unsolicited political emails.

Besides the user experience, the implications of different organizations having even more

direct lines of communication to users is disturbing given the amount of disinformation and

outright lies usually disseminated in campaign ads. This is similar to and would likely

compound problems and concerns of social media unduly influencing elections. 

Again, I ask the FEC to do whatever it can to stop this ridiculous program.
From: Rick Krementz

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 Google Spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:14:14 PM

Please do NOT allow/require Google and others to override spam and other user filters to

permit political operatives access to email boxes, especially when the receiver has

previously identified such mail as undesirable.

Our country is already overwhelmed with erroneous, false, and misleading

political sewage emails, and this has caused immense tribalism that has led to violence.

Worse, much of the "political content" is of foreign origin often seeking to disru[pt our

democracy.

The FCC and FEC should work on stopping all telephone spam calls, not opening even more

venom into our democracy by relaxing spam filtering.

Sincerely,

Rick Krementz

Criehaven, Maine
From: Brett Dansbury

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:49:47 PM

This cannot be allowed to proceed. We are already saturated with political advertising TV,

print, mail, SMS (where campaigns/PACs completely ignore do not call lists). This move will

not lead to high engagement of people in politics; it will only deepen the partisan wedge as

their ads are always filled with cherry picked data (at best) and flat out lies (most of the

time). 

Keep this junk out of our inbox. If individuals want to see these ads in their inbox, they can

allow them. 

The comments already provided to the FCC should tell you all you need to know. The only

ones in favor are 2 people who would directly benefit from this if allowed. Everyone one sees

this for the disaster it is.

Thank you,
From: Blueblurrie

To: AO

Subject: Comment about Google Political Email Spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:04:59 PM

I just wanted to say that I am totally against this. If I wanted political spam in my inbox I

would interact specifically with those organizations and politicians so that their emails make it

into my inbox. If you want the populace more divided and less informed, then go ahead and

approve this so that Google can make more ad money. This is not a step towards making the

populace more informed or engaged with topics and issues concerning them in a meaningful

way, just the opposite, it allows different groups to send their fact-twisted, histrionic mail to

all of us. What we need is to heal the divides in this country, to approach things in a fact based

manner, see multiple sides of issues, have meaningful discussions, reach across the table. Not

be inundated with a bunch of stupid political campaign crap designed to inflame us - no matter

what side of the table we sit on - so we can open up our pockets for political contributions.
From: Justin Petrillo

To: AO

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

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:46:00 PM

To whom it may concern,

Unsolicited physical mail from local political interest groups, politicians, campaigners, action

campaigns, and assorted others is already bad enough, and gets worse with each new election

season. I DO NOT need nor want that garbage arriving in my email inbox as well.

Ergo, I wish to strongly comment against the granting of permission to Google et al regarding

the allowance for political communications to bypass email spam filters. This is in no

individual's interest save Google's and what groups stand to unfairly benefit from ever greater

political overreach.

This cannot and should not be permitted nor suffered to endure.
From: Marshall Katz

To: AO

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

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:07:12 PM

Hello,

Recently Google has inquired about allowing all political emails to bypass spam protection

filters on gmail.com and for their email filtering products. I do not believe it is a good decision

to allow political emails to bypass spam protection. If political emails can bypass spam

protection users will have no ability to filter out unwanted messages which they may not have

even personally signed up for. Additionally emails companions are not equal for all candidates

and by allowing political emails to bypass spam filtering Google would be providing unequal

benefits to candidates while encouraging spam behavior.

Please do not approve this request.

Sincerely,

Marshall Katz
From: David Dean

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google"s request

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:17:36 PM

To whom it may concern:

Many of the political newsletters I have received (from multiple parties) on this email address

(note the Gmail domain) has not been opt-in. Thankfully, Gmail's current approach to

newsletters sufficiently allows for quickly unsubscribing. If I understand correctly,

newsletters detected by Gmail will have a button generated to unsubscribe from the address.

That is fine in my opinion.

From what I understand of Google's current request, they want to allow political ads and

newsletters sent via email (TCP protocol: SMTP, TCP port: 25) to bypass their spam filter(s).

Regardless of party, this seems like a horrible idea. I hold this stance for two primary reasons:

1. Google, and it's parent company Alphabet, is a for profit company. This feature sounds

like a new feature for the advertising branch of Alphabet more than a feature for the Gmail

product. This sounds as though Google/Alphabet will be offering a paid product to "political

campaigns" that will allow for more eyes on their messages against the actual users' best

interests and desires.

2. Any company/organization is prone to favoring their own biases and interpreting those

biases however they see fit. If this current request is approved, it could allow Google to

provided disproportionate favor to one political party over another. Effectively, if I may coin

the term, it would set the stage for "electoral profiteering".

Especially with the current political divide amongst the two primary political parties, this

request sounds like a for profit company is requesting that they profit from the very

government they wish to provide services to in order to influence individual voters. There are

already means for politicians to make their stances known, and the individuals that wish to

research those stances likely already employ those methods and seek out that information.

Additionally, Google might be offering to make finding that information easier in this request,

but that's effectively inviting user's to off-shore their own thinking and decision making to a

privately-held company with their own interests...which may or may not align with the

individual user's desire.

While management of an inbox should be largely up to the individual user, many of the

features provided by email providers can aid in keeping messages important to the individual

user organized in sensible matter. Should this "unsubscribe" button be all the more prominent

on all newsletters in Gmail going forward, it could almost be seen as appropriate. However,

granting this request seems like a floodgates moment for private companies to take a

disproportionately large stake in what should be their users' personal decision(s)...especially

decisions that would have an affect on more than just the individual(s) making the decision.

Regards,

David Dean
From: R Poortinga

To: AO

Subject: Comment: Political email and spam filtering

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:32:28 PM

Google has asked the FEC on guidance regarding "political campaign" email to bypass spam

filtering. This is a terrible idea for a number of reasons:

1) Definition: How does one define "political campaign" email? From a practical perspective,

this is impossible. Will this only apply to individual campaigns? What about PACs and other

special interest groups? How will Google identity "legitimate" email algorithmically?

2) Forgery: Email senders are easily forged and any special exception in spam filters can and

will be exploited by spammers.

3) SPAM is SPAM: Any unsolicited bulk email regardless of source is SPAM. It doesn't

matter who the sender is, if it is unsolicited, it is SPAM.

4) Slippery Slope: Adding any special exceptions to spam filtering is a slippery slope which

will lead to more and more special interest groups demanding exceptions from spam filtering.

In conclusion, any special treatment for certain types of email is impractical, unworkable, and

just plain wrong. If exceptions are made, they will be abused. Bulk email has essential zero

cost to send and, if there are no barriers to sending and it all is delivered to inboxes, this has

the potential to make email unusable for many. I rely on Gmail to communicate with friends,

family, and businesses. I dread the day when I open my inbox and find that I have a 1,000 (or

10,000) new messages. Please don't let this happen.

R,

Bob Poortinga

Bloomington, IN
From: David P

To: AO

Subject: Comments on 202214R

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:56:26 PM

To whom it may concern;

I have just become aware of the proposal by Google to allow a subset of political emails to

pass through their Spam filters. As a Gmail user myself, I cannot stress how much this is not

my desire.

Political mailers tend to be hyperbolic, truly the definition of Spam, and unhealthy for the

population at large. Google correctly points out that the Spam Filter is indispensable to the

users of this service. And with my personal history on the service, political emails are a huge

part of the Spam that I have filtered out. These emails are not desired. This also raises

privacy concerns as to email addresses in general and the resultant additional market for

selling of our data. Please refrain from giving Google the go ahead in this case.

Thank you,

A concerned citizen.
From: G. Sower

To: AO

Subject: Comments to AOR 2022-14

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:13:13 PM

Comment to FEC re Google’s Request for an Advisory Opinion (AOR 2022-14)

Dear Ms. Stevenson and Mr. Stipanovic:

I understand that Google requested an advisory opinion pursuant to 52 U.S.C. § 30108 of the Federal

Election Campaign Act of 1971. I urge you to advise against this request. My reasons are:

1. Existing Spam Situation

Gmail provides a spam folder so users can review and determine if a message was inadvertently

marked as spam when it was not. If my spam folder contains a political email I desired, I can mark it

as “Not spam.” This approach could be described as “opt-in” rather than Google’s proposed method

of opt-out. It works fine. There is no user-based reason to change this approach.

2. Volume of Emails

Google states that “the pilot program will be available to all FEC-registered federal candidates and

party committees.” My search of the FEC database on 7/13/2022 found over 100,000 registered

candidates and committees and I expect this will only increase with each election cycle. I do not

want to opt out of over 100,000 emails.

3. Current Political Situation

Google does not mention that a user’s location would be considered. I understand that I can donate

to candidates and committees outside of my voting area therefore I expect to be inundated by

candidates and committees. I think aggressive solicitation of funds from users not within a

candidate’s constituency would exacerbate the current political hostilities in this country.

Please advise Google against such a program.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Greg Sower
From: Andrea Goering

To: AO

Subject: Deny Google’s political spam hole

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:58:25 PM

Dear FEC,

Please deny Google’s request to allow political emails to bypass spam filters.

I am a community college instructor and my college uses Gmail. Our students are already

overburdened with demands on their time and attention from all directions. Please do not

allow Google to pile on one more cognitive load for my students and colleagues.

I also concur with points that previous commenters have already made that allowing this spam

filter bypass would:

1. Enable greater access for bad actors

2. Amplify polarization and alter political engagement, further degrading our democracy

3. Damages the integrity of email as a tool

Say NO to this proposal.

-- 

Dr. Andrea Goering

Pronouns: she, her, hers
From: Seth Cherney

To: AO

Subject: Do NOT allow politicians to bypass email spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:21:05 PM

I am already inundated with unsolicited texts from politicians that I have been fighting for

years to free myself from and cannot. It is incredibly intrusive and feels like a violation of my

privacy to have politicians accessing me via special channels deemed too intrusive for

everyone else. Let the lawmakers, and all other politicians, follow the rules. This is a terrible

idea and should be quashed immediately. Deny google's unnecessary request found at

https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/aos/2022-14/202214R_1.pdf.

Thank you, Seth Cherney
From: Jason Kotek

To: AO

Subject: Gmail Election Email Bypass

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:03:09 PM

In reference to:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/gmail-users-tell-the-fec-unsolicited-politicalemails-are-the-definition-of-spam/?comments=1

LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE!!!

What the hell is wrong with you people? The entire election process is completely ridiculous

& yet here you are even entertaining this idea because you know that traditional media outlets

aren't reaching us anymore. Ever think as to why that is? Because we hide from you. During

an election season I actively HIDE from you people because you just won't STFU parroting

the lies that EVERY SINGLE candidate spews. I'm so sick & tired about both parties

essentially spamming everyone with their B.S. & now you want to let it past the filters too?

Go ahead Google. I've been using Gmail since it launched in 2006 but if you do this that might

just be the push I need to send you packing.

You all are a bunch of inept douchebags. FTC was a joke under Trump & is under Biden as

well. You're supposed to protect us from fuckery like this, not entertain it. I feel ashamed that

I defended this country in my youth.

-- 

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
From: SueAnn Fitch

To: AO

Subject: Gmail proposal to increase spam with political speech

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:02:59 PM

Please do NOT approve this proposal. We are already inundated with spam. People are able to search online easily

to find information about politics, politicians and political parties. For all the reasons others have pointed out, the

absolute LAST thing anyone needs in their gmail inbox is more junk email.

Alternatively, if the FEC believes it must approve this, FIRST

1. Create a broad rule that requires political anything (issue groups, individuals, donors, parties) (a) to file copies

with the FEC of EVERY “political speech” email sent via Gmail ((b) with an accompanying list of every eddress to

which it was sent), and (c) LIMITING the number of messages that can be sent by such individuals AND/OR related

groups/parties etc to ONE Gmail EVERY 30 DAYS (absent the user’s written request to the sender receive more),

AND

2. Require Google to have an easily found, permanent and universal (without requiring repeats) opt-out of “political

speech” for every Gmail account for ALL so-called political speech for which its users do not sign up directly with

the sender.

Please do NOT make an already bad situation worse.

SueAnn Fitch
From: Harry McCaleb

To: AO

Subject: Gmail spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:42:21 AM

Please keep unsolicited political emails as spam.

I didn’t ask for them.

They are unwanted.

Some of the content of (especially GOP) fundraising emails are absolute lies, racism and trash.

Keep them as spam where they belong.

Harry McCaleb

From: Nick Borninski

To: AO

Subject: Google - political emails/spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:11:17 PM

Greetings:

I do not want Google to be able to allow unsolicited political emails to be delivered to its

users. The last thing anyone needs is more spam emails.

Thanks,

Nicholas Borninski
From: Brian Schkerke

To: AO

Subject: Google proposition to allow political email directly to inbox.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:14:47 PM

1. Spam is unsolicited email. Political emails are almost always unsolicited. Spam goes to

the spam folder.

2. Freedom of Speech, political or otherwise, does not mean forcing me to listen or act.

Having to manually deal with an avalanche of unsolicited emails is abusive. 

3. The fact that the recipients bear the brunt of the cost/time to deal with these emails should

be a red flag.

4. Which political emails are guaranteed? Will our email addresses be catalogued by

citizenship and only “applicable” emails passed through? Doubtful. Instead the ability will

become another exploit used by hostile actors, inside and outside the United States.

5. The possibilities for continued manipulation and misinformation, stamped for approval

because Google delivered it straight to the inbox, far outweighs any possible benefit.

6. Can Google start selling the right for direct to inbox delivery without ramifications? We’re

already trying to control Google’s ad business - allowing this bypass will accelerate further

requests to do the same.

There is no need to consider political affiliation to find this proposal flawed at its core.

Sincerely,

Brian Schkerke

From: Luke McManamon

To: AO

Subject: Google Spam Bypass Proposal

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:41:49 AM

FEC,

RE: Request 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Please do not allow Google to co-opt user email preferences for campaign emails.

Politcal campaign emails are notorious for blatant disinformation, prejudicial behavior and

harrasement of disinterested parties.

I myself am on a major political parties email list despite no interest in their agenda. Repeat

requests to be removed have proved fruitless as the email lists are rented from the national

party and come from numerous email addresses and organizations. Allowing google to co-opt

spam filters would make everyones email nearly unusable every other year during election

season.

If Google was allowed to force political emails in inboxes, during election years it would be a

non-stop hour by hour harassment campaign by political parties on people who have no

interest in their content. Content they previously could of had automatically sent to spam.

Last election season I received a email from a campaign, who I had no previous interaction

with, using bigoted language towards minorities. I am married to a Native American and

would find the ability of these organizations to bypass my email settings akin to Google

promoting hate speech.

The New York Times even reported on December 13, 2021 in a article titled, "Now In Your

Inbox: Politcal Misinformation" that, "They (users) think of it as context, they think of it as

information- but they don't necessarily see it as fundraising, even though thats what it is".

We cannot allow our most useful communication tools to be manipulated by politcal parties

with no desire to respect users preferences for the communication and no desire for

truthfulness in the message.

Please, please, please do not allow this program to go through. It is a blatant "in-kind"

donation to serve up lies, disinformation and harrasement.

Thank you,

Luke McManamon

Meridian, ID
From: OWEN DAVIES

To: AO

Subject: Google"s proposal to subject users to political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:16:53 PM

Responding to the appended proposal: absolutely not! The only justification for this is

Google's wish to charge political groups for unobstructed delivery. It contributes

nothing worthwhile to political discourse, subjecting recipients to little but demands for

contributions based on half-truths, distortions, and outright lies.

This will have no benefit to any cause but Google's bottom line. The great majority of

American voters already know which party they will vote against in the coming

election. Being subjected to the opposition's propaganda can produce only irritation

bordering on outrage.

Google's proposal would be a gross intrusion on my privacy. It exactly parallels the

FCC's exemption for political spam calls, which has helped drive me to ignore and

block all calls from numbers I do not recognize. The moment FEC approves this

proposal, I will leave Gmail for any alternative that does not force me to receive trash

I wish to avoid.

I will do so believing that the FEC has been captured by one of the actors it is

supposed to police. 

Owen Davies

.....

On July 6, the Commission made public an advisory opinion request by Google. The

requestor asks whether it may provide a free and non-partisan pilot program to test

certain design features in its email product to authorized candidate committees,

political party committees, and leadership political action committees. The

Commission will accept written comments on the request during the 10-day period

following the publication of the request (no later than July 11) and must issue a

response no later than 60 days after the receipt of the complete advisory opinion

request, that is, by August 30, 2022.
From: David Lapayowker

To: AO

Subject: No to allowing political emails to bypass spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:56:42 PM

The proposal to allow political emails to bypass spam filters is a horrifically bad idea. Not

only does it allow anyone who pretends to be a "politician" to spam me with impunity, it

encourages the most abusive and misleading forms of political advertising, which will make

political discourse even worse than it already is. The fact that some politicians love using

manipulative tactics and spammy language shouldn't mean that they get a special exemption

from the spam filters we rely on to keep email usable, or be encouraged to do so.
From: Tommy K.

To: AO

Subject: NO To Politcal Gmail Bypass

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:32:58 PM

Thank you for reading this. Due to the already increasing spam of political junk mail, phone

calls, text messages, and other invasive ways the FEC allows political candidates to "Market"

to consumers, it would be irrational to think that the FEC would allow any candidate to bypass

spam filters. Besides the increase in garbage mail US citizens would receive, this would

greatly open the door for other such requests from entities not within government, to which the

only end would be no spam filters at all, and we all get bombarded with emails we dont want.

I strongly oppose to Google's request.

Thank You,

Michigan Resident
From: Matt Gagliardi

To: AO

Subject: No to political emails being excepted from spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:02:01 PM

Dear Sir or Madam,

 I’m writing to register my strong opposition to allowing political communications to be excepted from spam filters.

Thanks,

Matt

Sent from my iPhone
From: Karen Robinson

To: AO

Subject: NO TO POLITICAL EMAILS

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:54:11 PM

I RECEIVE PHONE CALLS FOR MY DEAD PARENTS FROM THE REPUBLICAN

PARTY. MY PARENTS AREN'T COMING BACK TO LIFE!

NOOOOOO MORE GARBAGE EMAILS.

I SHALL LEAVE GOOGLE EVERYTHING IF THIS PASSES!

Thank you!

Karen Robinson
From: Peter Van De Brook

To: AO

Subject: Plan to let political emails bypass spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:08:24 PM

Count me as a definite "NO". I'm totally against it. I don't want it, don't need it and this is

exactly the type of material I want my provider to blacklist as SPAM. No politician deserves a

special privilege that allows them to bypass any email provider's spam filter or anything else

for that matter.

Peter Van De Brook
From: Bruce Bush

To: AO

Subject: Political email bypassing spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:58:13 PM

This is a very bad idea. It plays into the hands of the worst political organizations. Spammers

will likely find a way to abuse this feature also. Please don't allow Gmail to incorporate this

feature.

Thank you,

Bruce
From:

To: AO

Subject: Political Email Spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:53:16 PM

Unsolicited political emails are spam. Please stop the spread of political spam. Don’t allow Google to reclassify

political emails as non-spam. Thank you,

Reba Leiding

Sent from my iPhone
From: Raleigh Apple

To: AO

Subject: Political SPAM

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:52:16 PM

I would like to go ahead and opt-out of ALL political messages from Elephants, Asses or

Independents!

ANY UNSOLICITED EMAIL/SNAIL MAIL IS SPAM

DON'T WE ALREADY GET ENOUGH?

-- 

Would it be OK if all "social media" sites prefaced each post with a disclaimer like this?

"This post, along with all other posts on this site are pure, unadulterated bullshit. Only a fool

would believe anything here."
From: Collin Galloway

To: AO

Subject: Proposed Spam By-Pass of Political Mail

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:13:41 PM

I strongly oppose any move to circumvent current processes for identifying spam as such and

placing it in the spam folder, including any such mail from any political party.

Thank you,

Collin Galloway
From: Geoffrey Ball

To: AO

Subject: RE: AO 2022-14 Google Spam Filter

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:52:01 AM

It is in my strong opinion that Google's request to allow political emails through the spam

filter should be DENIED.

No one likes unsolicited mail. And the only people to benefit from unsolicited mail are

predators. Nothing should be legally allowed to enter a person's email inbox, or physical

mailbox for that matter, without prior consent of the individual. There are a plethora of other

public outlets that the politicians can utilize to get their messages out.

The private inboxes of individuals should not be violated to allow Google, Politicians, or any

entity posing as a politician to profit.

Please do your duty to the American Public and deny this request.

Regards,
From: Scott Davis

To: AO

Subject: Regarding AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:44:56 PM

Please do not allow Google to bypass political mail to the inbox. Unsolicited political mail is

just as obnoxious, if not more, than other forms of unsolicited communication. Users should

have the ability to decline to receive unsolicited emails.

-- Scott
From: Dan Plantholt

To: AO

Subject: Regarding Google"s request on Trial Program for political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:49:26 PM

To whom it may concern,

I would like to express my opinion regarding Google's request to have a trial program

allowing for the unbidden placement of political "spam" (unsolicited emails) messages in the

user's primary inbox for "authorized" senders. 

I wholly disagree with the intent and spirit of this pilot program and urge you to send a clear

message to Google that these messages are unwanted and should be left out of user's Primary

inbox.

Thank you,

Dan Plantholt
From: Bev

To: AO

Subject: Reject Google"s request re: political email

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:54:53 PM

To Whom it May Concern:

I ask that you reject Google’s petition to allow political emails bypass spam filters and be placed

directly in users’ inboxes. If I want to receive messages from someone I use the OPT IN feature, and

sign up willingly to receive emails from a variety of entities. I most certainly DO NOT wish to receive

political email of any kind, and certainly not UNSOLICITED email. There’s already too much

propaganda and misinformation out there, and the idea that I or anyone else would be unwillingly

subjected to receiving political entities. Add in the fact that many of these entities share/rent out

their email lists, and now we’re looking at dozens or hundreds of unsolicited emails per DAY.

Additionally, please rule for common sense, and deny Google’s petition to grant special status to

political emails, which amounts to free advertising and an unfair advantage. If you do approve this

heinous request, I fully expect you will be assessing the appropriate fines and collections against

Google for participating in excessive ‘in kind’ donations to political causes and thereby violating

federal campaign finance laws.

Sincerely,

Bev Gelfand
From: CLINTON A KENNEDY

To: AO

Subject: Stop political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:27:58 PM

I do not want Google to allow political email to bypass their spam filter. I'm already

getting way too much political spam and spam in general. Thank you. 

Clinton Kennedy
From: Patrick Schroeder

To: AO

Subject: Vote no on AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:04:29 PM

Dear FEC,

Regarding the recent proposal by Google to allow political emails to bypass spam filters, AO

2022-14 (Google LLC), I strongly urge you to deny this request.

There are a myriad of reasons why this would be a terrible decision, but most importantly this

system would be ripe for abuse by those looking to disseminate misinformation and

propaganda.

Additionally this would put Google in the seat of being the arbiter of what political entities

qualify for this special privilege, which could change based on the whims of whomever is

currently in charge of the division within the company.

Finally, the amount of unsolicited political spam we already receive in the form of electronic

communications like emails and text as well as telephone calls, is already completely

overwhelming and frustrating to say the least.

The last thing America and Americans need right now is another frictionless avenue for

political spam to be opened.

Please do not allow this proposal to be approved for this good of this country and the sake of

our already overwhelmed inboxes.

Thank you,

Patrick Schroeder

Portland, OR
1

From: B.J. Herbison 

Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:08 PM

To: AO

Subject: Google Advisory Opinion Request on authorized political spam

Please respond to the Google Opinion Request by saying "Spam is Spam".  

When a user doesn't want e‐mail (optional, non‐requested e‐mail, not related to a transaction) from a sender it

shouldn't matter who the sender is.

When I request e‐mail from a sender I want the e‐mail delivered to my Inbox. When a sender starts ending unsolicited e‐

mail I want it sent to my Spam mail box.

All individuals and organizations are allowed to make their views known.  

But forcing me to pay attention to every political speaker is unreasonable. It is a waste of my time, and prevents me

from doing other things I want to do.

       B.J.

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