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Campaign attorneys for President Donald Trump are allegedly engaged in an ongoing dispute with mobile carriers over political SMS spam. The campaign intends the messages as a means for outreach in support of the president’s bid for re-election. Reports indicate that the text messages are unsolicited. The campaign isn’t giving users the means or opportunity to opt-in or -out.
By all accounts, the jury is still out on the matter. Particularly with regard to whether or not the SMS campaign messages being sent by President Trump and his campaign via US carriers are even allowed. The president and his campaign assert that halting the messages equates to “suppression of political speech.”
That framing by the campaign belies the fact that the campaign has been called out for its messaging practices before. In fact, the Trump campaign has faced lawsuits over how aggressive its campaign has been. And Trump has also recently been engaged with social media sites as well on similar premises.
The “standoff” between the Donald Trump campaign and US carriers over the SMS messages being blocked is reportedly ongoing.
Carriers don’t seem to be saying much about the blocked SMS messages
The carriers, for their part, appear to be largely avoiding commenting on the matter. And that’s hardly surprising.
Reports indicate that it was a third-party app that blocked the messages. So carriers themselves may have had very little say in the matter. Although it isn’t immediately clear whether this was a third-party partner company assisting with anti-spam and robocall measures. Or if this was a third-party app consumers have opted-into.
Jared Kushner is said to have called the CEOs at each carrier to voice complaints on the matter. But the content of those conversations has not been reported.
This fits the definition of having your cake and eating it too
The carriers have also been ramping up efforts to put an end to robocalls, texts, and other spam over the past several years. That’s a decision that followed on demands from the Trump Administration’s FCC, requiring just such action be taken. T-Mobile, in particular, has taken a lead position on the measures — intended to protect US citizens from scams.