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Aggressive Email Filtering Blocks Political Debate

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the been-there-done-that dept.

Stephen writes "Many of us have spam blockers operating on our mail. But according to this BBC article, when British members of parliament starting having their emails filtered last month, it stopped them talking about genuine political business such as the Sexual Offences Bill, and prevented them receiving some constituents' emails." This problem has bit me on the bum a few times too. About 1 message in every 250 spam is a false hit. Course thats about once a day :(

2 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Webmail and "spamlets" by germinatoras · · Score: 4, Informative

    A similar problem happens with free Webmail or adversiting-supported e-mail accounts. The small advertisements attached to the bottom (I call them "spamlets") will sometimes trigger mail filters.

    Watch out for this if you're sending a message from e.g. Yahoo! to Hotmail, who both attach spamlets and both filter incomming mail. They also will not send rejection notices to the sender, so you may never know if you message got through.

  2. similar has happened in US by jdunlevy · · Score: 4, Informative

    When the FTC decided to try filtering