Keeping Unwanted Donkeys and Elephants out of Your Inbox: The Case for Regulating Political Spam
Seth Grossman · bepress Legal Repository · 2004
This Article focuses on the growing but largely unexamined phenomenon of political spam. Although political spam lies at the nexus of two important developments in recent years-the increasing government regulation of unsolicited communication and the growing use of Internetbased media in political campaigns-it has for the most part been ignored. This Article scrutinizes the reasons underlying lawmakers and commentators' failure to deal with the political spam problem and argues that leaving the issue unaddressed is a mistake. It contends that political spam can and should be regulated as part of a general measure restricting the use of all unsolicited bulk e-mails. In order to do so, this Article lays out the scope of the political spam problem by tracing its escalating use in recent elections. It then considers how the various mechanisms contained in current and proposed laws regulating other forms of unsolicited communication, including commercial spam, telemarketing telephone calls, and blast faxing, can be applied to political spam, and evaluates the efficacy of the various measures. Next, this Article examines the constitutional and policy issues surrounding the potential regulation of political spam. Finally, it offers an innovative model piece of legislation that would curb political spam without compromising candidates' free speech rights or the legitimate use of e-