In the midst of the election season, you may have noticed a rise in political texts.
“You know, this time of the year now, as we’re entering that political stage of the year, we’re all getting political texts,” said Gerald Kasulis, the vice president of business operations for NORD Security.
A call-blocking service called Robokiller estimates that Americans nationwide received 253 million political robotexts in December 2023.
If you’ve been receiving texts from candidates asking for money even though you believe you didn’t provide them with your number, you might have unknowingly given them permission.
“I personally receive political texts, and what’s interesting is I never actually signed up to any political parties or consented to receive those types of texts,” Kasulis said.
So, how do campaigns manage to do this? Sometimes, contact information is obtained from commercial data brokers.
However, experts mention that political committees and their service providers also utilize voter registration records, which are accessible to anyone engaging in political communications. These records contain the name, addresses, and contact information of all registered voters.
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“Even though you might not have signed up to a certain political party, for instance, or subscribe to their reach out, there are different means of acquiring data, and data is easily being sold and shared between different organizations or parent companies,” Kasulis mentioned.
So, what regulations oversee political texts? The Federal Do Not Call Registry does not offer protection from campaign-related calls or texts.
Robokiller states that politicians are increasingly resorting to texts and robocalls due to their higher engagement rates compared to traditional methods like TV ads.
Texting is also cost-effective, with some cases costing as little as one cent per message.
How to stop political texts
Experts suggest texting “stop” or unsubscribing from those texts, but also advise not stopping there.
After replying stop, proceed to block the number. You can also access the “messages” settings on your phone and filter out text messages from contacts not in your list.
If you wish to avoid political texts in the future, you can modify your voter registration documents and remove your phone number.
If you receive a text that you believe violates FCC rules, report it by forwarding the text to “7726,” which spells out the word “spam.”
