Sure, spam is bad, and I’d like to get rid of it, too, but not at the cost of having ISPs and governments required to discard my mail based on content. That last is basically what a new ITU report, Stemming the International Tide of Spam seems to recommend.

The root problem with all such recommendations is their insistence on defining spam as commercial. I get spam from religious organizations, spam in languages I don’t even read, and, worst of all, spam from politicians. Spam is unsolicited bulk electronic mail. Confusing content with spam is, and has always been, a big mistake. If you let content leak into your definition of spam, quickly you’re into censorship and first amendment territory.