Gmail getting ‘more prominent unsubscribe button’ for political emails as spam pilot starts

September 20, 2022

2 min read

Following approval by the US Federal Election Commission in August, Gmail will start a pilot program to exempt political campaign emails from the spam filter.

Google told Axios today that it “expect[s] to begin the pilot with a small number of campaigns from both parties and will test whether these changes improve the user experience, and provide more certainty for senders during this election period.”

Political emails that might have previously been marked as spam will now appear in Gmail inboxes. However, the first time users open such an email there will be a “prominent notification” asking “whether the user wishes to continue receiving messages from the sender.”

“[F]uture emails from that sender to a particular user would be placed in the spam folder” if they say no on the banner. Meanwhile, Google today touted a “more prominent unsubscribe button” and the ability to mark it as spam. This new UI has not been shared yet.

Gmail still scans for phishing and malware. As Axios notes, the public did not like this pilot program:

Despite hundreds of negative comments submitted to the FEC arguing against it, the FEC approved the program in August. Eligible committees, abiding by security requirements and best practices as outlined by Google, can now register to participate.

Google says it “will continue to listen and respond to feedback as the pilot progresses.”