CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With primary season in full swing, you are probably getting more and more text messages from different campaigns and political groups. While these can be annoying, is there any way you can stop them?
No matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, one thing we all go through is political messages sent straight to you. While there are ways to be added to the Do Not Call List for marketing or spam texts, does the same hold true for political messages?
THE QUESTION
If you're on the Do Not Call Registry, can political texts still come through?
THE ANSWER
Yes, even if you're on the Do Not Call Registry, political text can still come through.
OUR SOURCES
WHAT WE FOUND
The National Do Not Call Registry is a creation of the Federal Trade Commission. It allows consumers to fend off spam calls from telemarketers.
However, according to the FTC, registering doesn't stop other types of organizations from contacting you. This includes charities, political groups and debt collectors.
"Political messages are considered to be protected free speech," Ackerman said.
Because of this, no matter what, these messages are allowed to reach your phone or inbox. But there are ways to manage them.
"You have the option to report them as junk in your operating system or the vendor that is operating those messages," Ackerman said.
You may also see an option to stop these messages at the end of the political text, but Ackerman said clicking a link or responding in any way might do more harm than good.
"If you interact with any of these messages, they will know that it is an active number," Ackerman explained. "So if you push stop on that number, it can be shared. Then it can go to another number, another group. So I would advise not interacting with any of those messages."
Ackerman said if you are getting political messages through email, you can unsubscribe. There are apps you can download that will only allow the numbers you approve to contact you. In October 2022, the last election season, Robokiller said Americans received 1.3 billion political campaign phone text messages.
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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