Chances are you’ve noticed more political texts hitting your phone over the past few years.
In September 2020, nearly 3 billion text messages were sent to Americans, according to the “Robo Killer” app, which tracks domestic robocall and message data.
The biggest increase in texts and calls was just before the 2020 election.
But some people in our area are getting texts about races and state and local referendums.
And you may receive them even if you’re on a do-not-call list.
Bot texts are considered illegal if the sender uses autodialing technology.
But they are legal if a person working for a campaign actually sends the text.
If you’re wondering how nonprofits and campaigns get your number, all states allow them to access the data for political purposes.
There are a few steps you can take to try to stop the messages.
The easiest way is to answer “STOP” or “CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION”.
You can also enable a feature that sorts potential spam messages into a different folder.
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Just go to Settings, tap Messages, and turn on “Filter Unknown Senders.”
It will put all messages from people who are not in your contact list into a separate text list.
Android users can do something similar by selecting “Turn on spam protection” in the message settings.
The FCC recommends that you report a campaign if you believe it violates the “autodialing” rule.
Just go to FCC.gov/complaints.
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