cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36488526
My understanding from recent reporting is that Gmail’s spam filters routinely block messages from reaching consumers when those messages come from Republican senders but fail to block similar messages sent by Democrats. Indeed, according to recent reporting, Alphabet has “been caught this summer flagging Republican fundraising emails as ‘dangerous’ spam— keeping them from hitting Gmail users’ inboxes—while leaving similar solicitations from Democrats untouched….” Likewise, commenters on the FTC’s request for information regarding Technology Platform Censorship have complained that Google is using a partisan approach in administering its spam filters. And finally, as you know, similar concerns have resulted in ongoing litigation against Google in other settings.
That’s fine. My filters will just continue sending them to /dev/null.
“I got mine so screw everyone else” is a common Republican refrain.
There are things I can deal with and there are things I can not. I’m not about to waste precious resources worrying about things I can’t affect. I do my part when opportunity presents, but winter is coming, and Me and Mine are not yet prepared.
If you think you can change what is coming, then by all means, but I’ve got more pressing concerns at present.
There’s a pretty big divide between failing to stop something like this and being fine with it. Democracy is hard to preserve sometimes and that sucks. But being fine with it eroding is another matter entirely.
I’m not American so I can’t do anything about the FTC by design. I’m doing volunteer work for political parties in my own country that are helping to insulate and distance us from America instead.