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https://www.productionai.institute/graph/events/evt-aiid-83

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Production AI Institute public record · AI Incident Database: AI Spam Filters Allegedly Block Legitimate Emails Based on Biased Keyword Detection · observed 2020-12-11
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AI Incident Database: AI Spam Filters Allegedly Block Legitimate Emails Based on Biased Keyword Detection

AlgorithmWatch tested spam filtering algorithms across Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, GMX, and LaPoste. Their findings reportedly showed that Microsoft Outlook’s spam filter flagged emails based on specific keywords that led to racial and content-based biases blocking legitimate communications. Emails mentioning Nigeria or containing certain financial and sexual health terms were found to be disproportionately marked as spam.

AI Incident Database · Incident 83

Operator lens (medium): inspect D1 (input boundary), D2 (output validation), D6 (autonomy oversight).

Confidence
78%
Sources
2
Entities
12
Detected
detected 2046d ago

Event summary

AlgorithmWatch tested spam filtering algorithms across Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, GMX, and LaPoste. Their findings reportedly showed that Microsoft Outlook’s spam filter flagged emails based on specific keywords that led to racial and content-based biases blocking legitimate communications. Emails mentioning Nigeria or containing certain financial and sexual health terms were found to be disproportionately marked as spam.

D1D2D6

Linked entities

  • yahoo

    organisation | 70%

  • Microsoft

    vendor | 70%

  • laposte

    organisation | 70%

  • Google

    vendor | 70%

  • gmx

    organisation | 70%

  • outlook

    organisation | 70%

  • gmail

    organisation | 70%

  • yahoo!-mail-users

    organisation | 70%

  • microsoft-outlook-users

    organisation | 70%

  • laposte-users

    organisation | 70%

  • gmx-users

    organisation | 70%

  • gmail-users

    organisation | 70%

Related graph edges

EdgeTypeConfidence
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d1maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d1maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d1maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d4maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d4maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d4maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-google to ent-psf-d6maps to60%

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Event dates

  • Happened 22 Oct 2020

  • Detected 11 Dec 2020

Sources

  • AI Incident Database - Incident 83

    secondary | checked 9 July 2026

    Open source
  • Spam filters are efficient and uncontroversial. Until you look at them.

    secondary | checked 11 Dec 2020

    Open source
Cite this record

"AI Incident Database: AI Spam Filters Allegedly Block Legitimate Emails Based on Biased Keyword Detection." https://www.productionai.institute/graph/events/evt-aiid-83 (observed 2020-10-22; retrieved 2026-07-19). PAI.

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