In the midst of the election season, you might be noticing a rise in political texts.
“You know, this time of year, as we’re entering that political stage of the year, we’re all getting political texts,” stated Gerald Kasulis, the vice president of business operations for NORD Security.
A call-blocking service called Robokiller approximates that Americans nationwide received 253 million political robotexts in December 2023.
If you’ve been receiving texts from candidates asking for money despite not recalling giving them your number, you may have unknowingly granted them permission.
“I personally receive political texts, and what’s intriguing is I never actually signed up for any political parties or provided consent to receive those types of texts,” noted Kasulis.
So, how do campaigns accomplish this? Sometimes contact information is bought from commercial data brokers.
However, experts mention that political committees and the companies that assist them also utilize voter registration records, which are accessible to anyone conducting political communications. These records contain the name, addresses, and contact info of every registered voter.
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“Even if you haven’t signed up for a particular political party, for example, or agreed to their outreach, there are various ways of obtaining data, and data is readily sold and shared among different organizations or parent companies,” Kasulis added.
So, what regulations oversee political texts? The Federal Do Not Call Registry does not provide protection from campaign-related calls or texts.
Robokiller mentions that politicians are increasingly resorting to texts and robocalls because they have higher engagement rates compared to traditional methods like TV ads.
Texting is also cost-effective. In some instances, it can be as inexpensive as one cent per message.
How to stop political texts
Experts advise replying “stop” or unsubscribing from those texts, but they also suggest going further.
Once you respond with stop, proceed to block the number. You can also navigate to the “messages” settings on your phone and filter out text messages from anyone not in your contact list.
If you wish to avoid political texts in the future, you can update your voter registration documents and eliminate your phone number.
If you receive a text that you believe violates FCC regulations, report it by forwarding the text to “7726,” which spells out the word “spam.”
