Make it ‘STOP’: Does replying to spam texts from politicians really block them

By Joe Arney
Illustration by Dana Heimes

Think your phone's blowing up with spam text messages from candidates and campaigns?

Buckle up-you ain't seen nothing yet.

The Federal Election Commission's final pre-election filing deadline for campaigns is Oct. 24. Expect a ton of texts as that date approaches, said Bridget Barrett, an assistant professor of advertising at the University of Colorado Boulder's College of Media, Communication and Information.

What can you do to dodge the digital deluge? Not much, she said.

"This has been an extremely contentious election season," said Barrett, who studies digital marketing and political communication. "Campaigns are chasing every advantage right now, and as long as texting continues to work, they'll keep doing it."

There's no single way most people wind up on a list to receive campaign texts. Usually, she said, you gave money at some point, or you signed up for something without realizing that you were giving your number to a political organization. It might also be through a merchandise sale, or if you fill out an online poll.

"There are different national rules and state laws around list swapping among different companies and fundraising organizations, and many different data privacy laws at different levels-but once you're on a list, you're likely to get texts from people you did not directly opt in with," she said. "It's hard because there are so many ways for your data to be collected and then shared."

There are a few steps consumers can take to silence the annoying alerts. Replying STOP every time you get one of these messages will, eventually, cut down on the number of texts you get, "though it probably won't stop them altogether," she said.

Another step is to be discerning about giving out your information. "Consider using services where you can create burner email addresses, and think twice before handing over your phone number," she said.

Barrett also advised consumers to register their phones through the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call registry, though candidates and campaigns are exempt from the protections it offers. Voters can also update their registrations to remove their phone numbers; however, she said, that is unlikely to be a source for texts like these.

Longer term, Barrett is watching the arms race between phones and campaigns-especially how political camps will respond as mobile service providers and handset manufacturers introduce better spam filters to protect user data.

She's also interested to see whether campaigns start limiting this kind of outreach, especially if they see it's turning people off.

"No one is concerned about that right now, because they're still seeing a return on their investment," she said. "There might be a postmortem in the future to look at whether this is sustainable-on the right, we did see some burnout and a decrease in donations after the 2016 election-but right now, the only concern is getting people elected."

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