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Does this explain why my inbox is currently filled with political spam? Or is it just that we're a couple weeks away from an election?

CameronNemo 4y ago
Is it actual spam? Is there no unsubscribe button? Are you sure you didn't sign up for any mailing lists?
- lupire 4y ago
  Unsubscribe button doesn't make it not spam. Political campaigns are notorious contact info buyers, because the government wrote itself and its cronies an exemption from spam laws, calling it "free speech".
  - CameronNemo 4y ago
    I didn't say it was. The questions were separate.
- ElevenLathe 4y ago
  I have clicked hundreds of these unsubscribe links and they still keep coming. I don't have the patience anymore. FWIW they are spam for Democratic pols, and all seemed to start in 2020 after the Sanders pivoted to drumming up support for the Biden/Harris ticket (before that I only got email from the Sanders campaign about the Sanders campaign, which I didn't consider spam since I had signed up for it). But the last ~week has been the worst, like 20-30 very obvious spam per day, for races I've never heard of in states I've never lived.
  - CameronNemo 4y ago
    I used to get tons of campaign emails but I just kept clicking unsubscribe and now I get very few.
    - nickthegreek 4y ago
      Same. But the experience has kept me from every donating again.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  Dunno, most of the spam on my gmail account takes the form of mailing lists or newsletters, and I go out of my way to never subscribe to mailing lists or newsletters. Often it's advertising services that aren't even available in my region.
- diebeforei485 4y ago
  They get your info from voter registration / party registration.
lupire 4y ago
Just the election. Most political "spam" doesn't meet the technical definition that mail systems use, unfortunately.
MBCook 4y ago
Sort of. Here’s what I know: First Republicans complained they were being censored compared to Democrats. Their emails tend to look more like SPAM. But I’m sure that’s not why they were ending up in SPAM folders. It was totally censorship. Due to threats of regulation/etc. Google made a program were campaigns(?) could register to keep their emails going into inboxes and not hit the filters. Republicans decided not to sign up? Maybe so they could sue and score more political points with their base based on their supposed ‘censoring’? Democrats, however, were happy to sign up so now even more of their emails hit the inbox. Lovely. So between the flat out increased volume as we approach the election and everything above it’s gotten worse.
- andsoitis 4y ago
  > Their emails tend to look more like SPAM. But I’m sure that’s not why they were ending up in SPAM folders. It was totally censorship. Wait, so things that, by your account look like spam and hence end up in spam folders is censorship? Makes no sense.
  - Enginerrrd 4y ago
    I think it was sarcasm.
  - MBCook 4y ago
    As another person identified, that was meant sarcastically.

CameronNemo 4y ago

Is it actual spam? Is there no unsubscribe button? Are you sure you didn't sign up for any mailing lists?

lupire 4y ago
Unsubscribe button doesn't make it not spam. Political campaigns are notorious contact info buyers, because the government wrote itself and its cronies an exemption from spam laws, calling it "free speech".
- CameronNemo 4y ago
  I didn't say it was. The questions were separate.
ElevenLathe 4y ago
I have clicked hundreds of these unsubscribe links and they still keep coming. I don't have the patience anymore. FWIW they are spam for Democratic pols, and all seemed to start in 2020 after the Sanders pivoted to drumming up support for the Biden/Harris ticket (before that I only got email from the Sanders campaign about the Sanders campaign, which I didn't consider spam since I had signed up for it). But the last ~week has been the worst, like 20-30 very obvious spam per day, for races I've never heard of in states I've never lived.
- CameronNemo 4y ago
  I used to get tons of campaign emails but I just kept clicking unsubscribe and now I get very few.
  - nickthegreek 4y ago
    Same. But the experience has kept me from every donating again.
marginalia_nu 4y ago
Dunno, most of the spam on my gmail account takes the form of mailing lists or newsletters, and I go out of my way to never subscribe to mailing lists or newsletters. Often it's advertising services that aren't even available in my region.
diebeforei485 4y ago
They get your info from voter registration / party registration.

lupire 4y ago

Just the election. Most political "spam" doesn't meet the technical definition that mail systems use, unfortunately.

MBCook 4y ago

Sort of. Here’s what I know: First Republicans complained they were being censored compared to Democrats. Their emails tend to look more like SPAM. But I’m sure that’s not why they were ending up in SPAM folders. It was totally censorship. Due to threats of regulation/etc. Google made a program were campaigns(?) could register to keep their emails going into inboxes and not hit the filters. Republicans decided not to sign up? Maybe so they could sue and score more political points with their base based on their supposed ‘censoring’? Democrats, however, were happy to sign up so now even more of their emails hit the inbox. Lovely. So between the flat out increased volume as we approach the election and everything above it’s gotten worse.

andsoitis 4y ago
> Their emails tend to look more like SPAM. But I’m sure that’s not why they were ending up in SPAM folders. It was totally censorship. Wait, so things that, by your account look like spam and hence end up in spam folders is censorship? Makes no sense.
- Enginerrrd 4y ago
  I think it was sarcasm.
- MBCook 4y ago
  As another person identified, that was meant sarcastically.