Google is launching a new programme that will allow US political campaigns to bypass Gmail’s spam filters and have their emails delivered straight to the main inbox. This is reported by Engadget.
The programme, known as the Gmail Verified Sender Programme, will come into effect on 8 September 2026 – shortly before the US mid-term elections. To take part, political committees must send emails from a verified domain and keep their spam complaint rate below 0.3 per cent.
Read also: The US Congress is making extensive use of AI: bills are riddled with errors that lawyers cannot keep up with correcting
The company explains that the update will help politicians deliver emails directly to people who “want to receive them”. At the same time, Gmail users will not lose control over their inboxes: they will still be able to mark any messages as spam, block senders and unsubscribe from newsletters.
Google has had a strained relationship with the US Republican National Committee for many years – the committee is convinced that the company deliberately censors their emails. In 2022, Gmail introduced a way for political campaigns to bypass spam filters for the first time, in response to a complaint by the party to the US Federal Election Commission. Later that year, the Republicans took Google to court, accusing it of discrimination through its spam filters. Although the case was dismissed in 2024, Google is once again offering political campaigns a way to avoid the junk mail folder.
Related: Google is to stop supporting third-party email addresses in Gmail – the ‘Send As’ feature will be disabled in 2027
Share:
Посилання скопійовано
