The Pentagon rebuked the first spam email as a flagrant policy violation

Evidence

Unfortunately for Thuerk, the response was immediate and negative. The Pentagon wrote an email describing the blast as a “FLAGRANT VIOLATION” of federal policy. Thuerk got a call from a testy official at the Pentagon, who informed him that the Internet was for official government business only. Thuerk said someone “called me up and chewed me out. He made me promise never to do it again.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 661

Categorization

• CANDY: The origin story that the Pentagon scolded spam’s inventor is a fun, lightweight fact.