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With another election season comes patriotism, heightened tensions, an in-your-face news cycle and of course, a tirade of political text messages.
“It’s Joe. We’re in this race together. With so much at stake this November, can you rush a donation to the campaign now?”
“From Trump: VICTORY IS OUR ULTIMATE REVENGE! Be the FIRST PERSON to read my Super Tuesday victory memo.”
“We missed our August goal! We’re upgrading you to a 10x MATCH. CHIP IN NOW.”
It seems like now, more than ever, political campaigns are using mass text message operations to ask potential voters for support, money and questionnaire answers. It’s a daily occurrence that some people cannot escape.
If you’re one of the thousands of Americans who cannot seem to cease the mass text messages from campaigns, here’s how you can stop them.
Respond “STOP”
It seems obvious, but the first step is to opt out of messages by replying “STOP”.
Any legitimate campaign is supposed to honor opt-out requests, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Some have reported that opting out of messages doesn’t work. Sometimes the political group will acknowledge a person has opted out, but they still find themselves receiving text messages the next day.
Block the sender
Another obvious solution is to block the sender.
Once you opt out of receiving text messages, block the number it was sent from.
Filter unknown sender
Nowadays, most smartphones have spam filters built into them that separate text messages sent from unknown numbers from those sent from contacts in your phone.
In iPhone settings, you can toggle “Filter Unknown Senders” which will send a message from an unknown number to a separate inbox.
For Android users, go into the messaging app, click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, hit settings and then “enable spam protection.”
File a complaint with the FCC
Political campaign text messages are exempt from the “Do Not Call” list but they are still asked to honor the “STOP” opt-out function.
The FCC said that if a political robo-text does not comply with that, you can forward the text you did not want to 7726 (“SPAM”).
You can also file an informal complaint at fcc.gov/complaints.
