Loopholes Galore Mean Political Spam Should Be In Your Inbox Shortly
from the wonderful dept
Political spam is nothing new. We first wrote about it nearly six years ago, during the 2000 Presidential elections. Since then, there have been plenty of articles on it, and plenty of examples of politicians using it (though, some believe that it can cause more people to vote for the spammed politician's opponent). However, a few legal loopholes could mean a lot more political spam this election season, even as people are getting more and more fed up with spam. The first is that the CAN SPAM act just so happens to exempt political spam (politicians exempting themselves from a law? what a surprise...). The second was the recent ruling that internet political communications were not subject to federal election rules. This makes sense for a lot of reasons -- because such regulations could ban all sorts of political talk online, from blogs to emails. However, in giving the internet total freedom, some fear that lots of money that can't go directly into a campaign will now get funneled into political spamming campaigns. It's a way to help promote a candidate without the traditional limitations. Of course, as we mentioned at the beginning, there is still the risk that such actions could actually end up influencing voters in the opposite direction -- away from the spamming politician. However, since we live in a world where overwhelming and unavoidable political advertising seems to be seen as a good thing by most political operatives, it seems unlikely for many to realize that not annoying everyone might actually make sense for once.
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shotgun email...
more food for thunderbird i guess.
honestly from an 'end user' point of view filters are making this a moot point, though i can see servers being hammered.
but as for politicos drafting laws that they themselves are exempt from... why is *that* considered 'news' its always been that way, and always will be.
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politispam backlash
Not that it matters either way. The backlash effect only matters if only one candidate is engaging in politispam. That's not likely. Once the muckraking starts, whatever the venue, the other candidates are going to be right there, live and in color in the naked bipartisan muck wrestling match.
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Re: politispam backlash
It's true that spam, as hated as it is, might push voters the other way. Knowing this, though, what's to stop campaign A from sending spam promoting campaign B in an effort to cash in on this backlash?
I have to say I thought of that too. The answer is Nothing!
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Re: politispam backlash
Once BOTH candidates start sending spam, either honestly promoting their own candidacy, or deviously trying to irritate voters against the other candidate, who are the voters pushed to vote for? Or against?
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Reminds me of the "no call" list
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cold calls
other way (quickest way) to get them off the phone is just say your a life long voter for them, but don't have the time to talk.
likewise i tell every polester a different (random) story.
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Same all thing
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Send it back
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Re: Send it back
I was also fascinated at just how well crafted the message was. Links to "news" stories supporting the candidate or issue. Donation requests, links to get information to become involved ... it was oddly compelling. Not like the message from "Marta Conley" with the subject line of "Dharma not kiwi" telling me about the next great energy stock.
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Flood Schools with Political Email?
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Re: Flood Schools with Political Email?
Although the politicians have been complaining about the "apathetic youth" and their involvement with politics. Maybe colleges are not good targets?
I used to work for OSU's Supercomputer Center and the only thing that ate up the bandwidth on a regular basis were file sharing programs. Every once in a while an email virus or denial of service attack would slow things down. Politispam eating up the bandwidth? Probably not because of the backlash. Or maybe that's what THEY want?
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Re: Re: Flood Schools with Political Email?
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Varying sources
Direct-from-the-politician spam is bad enough, but what's been worse the past few years is when organizations tell their members to spam their friends.
Remember franking...?
.
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Politicians Suck
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Re: Politicians Suck
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Re: Re: Politicians Suck
This is america. Until you can write a clear statement about a topic, in english because thats what we speak here, please stay off the message boards.
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Re: Re: Re: Politicians Suck
Please note that English and America are capitalized. If you are going to admonish someones poor English skills, use your spell check.
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RNC spamming
Then they would spam these users. There were sometimes a blurb about mail coming from RNC before you signed up, but usually not. Sometimes the email lists were just rented from other sources.
The RNC at least was very dirty in its mailing from a technologists standpoint. Im sure the DNC wasnt really any better. Maybe less hypocritical since RNC stands on anti-gambling when doing its church rounds.
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I plan on following a simple rule
I know a couple of candidates for public office in this year's elections. I plan on telling them that. Please tell any candidates that you know. They can spread the word to other candidates as well. If enough of us tell them the consequences now, then maybe they will see the light before they start up the spam machines.
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