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Risks of Partisan Spam Filtering?

Posted by Cliff on from the filter-fairly-if-you-filter-at-all dept.

Mike1024 asks: "Pete Klammer reported in RISKS 23.95 about spam filtering software filtering political e-mails - including Postini blocking certain anti-Schwarzenegger URLs and Comcast blocking e-mails mentioning afterdowningstreet.org. This could be caused by malicious action, misreporting of spam, 'joe jobs', or actual spamming. With many people using their ISP's default settings, and manual spam filtering being impractical for many users, what can be done to avoid giving ISPs and anti-spam companies extensive, fully automated censorship abilities?"

4 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Gee, stop asking for donations? by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That would seem to me to be the #1 cause of political spam being filtered. #2 would be the outlandish use of HTML when a text message would do just as well. If they stopped just those two behaviors, most of the spam filters would let the messages through just fine.

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    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  2. It wasn't that long ago... by krewemaynard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...that folks were clamoring for ISPs to do MORE to prevent spam. Now they're doing more, and we're wondering if it's too much and they should do less. decicive bunch, aren't we?

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    I saw it on Slashdot, it must be true!
  3. Re:What the hell is the big deal? by krewemaynard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    False-positives are the reason why Thunderbird sends spam to the Junk folder and not directly to the Trash. Yeah, it sucks having to go through that stuff to make sure nothing accidentally got bundled in there, but it's better than a) having it all in the Inbox, and b) losing something important. But the good thing is, it's my choice. If the ISP starts blocking it, I may never know that I lost something that was supposed to get through. At work, that could cost money. Not good.

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    I saw it on Slashdot, it must be true!
  4. the political lists could help out by snorklewacker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Starting by running some decent lists. These folks run some amazingly slipshod lists, usually unconfirmed optin, and sometimes outright buying addresses. What do they expect? They're spamming!

    But they figure that since they're not commercial, that they have a cause and a message, that they don't really have to pay attention to running a clean list, and anyone who blocks them must be a political censor.

    I'm a left liberal, but I find myself blocking the DNC more often than the RNC, simply because the former has less stringent mail practices.

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