It’s that time of year when our phones become flooded with political text messages.
During the 2022 election cycle, Americans received over 15 billion political texts. And perhaps not surprisingly, this year is on track to break that record. Even though the Telecom industry has done its best to put barriers to entry for bad actors in the political space (requiring 10DLC registration with clear Call To Action and Terms of Service, and Verification in the case of Toll-Free Numbers), many Political Action Committees still find ways to send unwanted text messages based on their selective interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and self-service text messaging applications.
And given we are approaching the final lap of a contentious political race, it may get worse before it gets better.
So what can you do to limit the barrage of unwanted political text messages? Our SMS experts have weighed in on the 5 most effective ways to minimize these interruptions.
1. Reply STOP to any political messages you receive and block the number.
Senders are required to stop texting you if you ask them to, and while this sounds easy enough, it will only prevent further communications from this specific sender and phone number. You may continue to receive these kinds of messages from other PACs.
2. Report these unwanted messages to the FCC by forwarding the texts to 7726 (or “SPAM”).
You can also file a complaint online. While the FCC may not always pursue resolution of individual complaints, your report can inform policy decisions (such as the Do Not Call List being exempt from political text messaging – why!?!) and assist in future enforcement actions.
3. Filter messages from unknown senders
Both iPhone and Android devices have settings that allow you hide messages from people that aren’t in your contact list.
On iPhone, navigate to Settings> Messages> Message Filtering and switch on ‘Filter Unknown Senders’. On Android, from within the Messaging app, tap the three dots in the top right corner of the search bar, navigate to Settings, and turn on Spam Protection.
While this is a great way to filter out the noise from unwanted text messages, you may also miss certain appointment reminders, retail notifications, or 2FA messages. So make sure you are checking in on these folders once in a while. And if you want to ensure you receive messages from lists you’ve subscribed to, be sure to save them as a contact.
4. Only donate to official campaign or party websites.
It generally goes without saying to be mindful of where you enter your credit card information online and political donations are no different. While not providing your cell phone number to these sites might help a little, the amount of information collected, stored and brokered about campaign supporters is vast – meaning, they likely already have it.
5. Be mindful of how you interact online and with candidates.
While it may seem like PACs are contacting everyone, they generally only want to target people who are likely to support their cause. They develop profiles based on voter registration and then enhance those profiles with information available from data brokers about your preferences, interests, demographics, and more. The more clues you provide that you might support the cause (by sharing political content, liking political tweets, or responding favorably to a political text, for example), the more likely they are to contact you via text.
How Mobiniti Can Help
With only a few weeks left to go, we are nearing the end of the race (and interruptions!). By utilizing the above tactics, you can limit the amount of political spam reaching your device as we build to the fever pitch of November 2024.
Have questions about your own text messaging program? Drop us a line – we’d be happy to help.
