Tips provided to avoid getting political texts

Over the last several years, you have probably noticed an increase in the number of political messages that are sent to your phone.

According to the “Robo Killer” app, which monitors and collects statistics on nationwide robocalls and text messages, approximately 3 billion texts were sent to Americans in September of 2020.

The number of calls and messages went up the most right before the election in 2020.

However, there are some individuals in our region who are receiving messages about upcoming local and state races as well as referendums.

Even if you are on a Do Not Call list, it is possible that you may still get these calls.

If the sender employs an auto-dialing system, the robotext is regarded as illegal.

On the other hand, they do not violate the law if they are sent by a person who is hired by a campaign.

You have a few options for trying to stop the messages.

The quickest and easiest option is to just respond with “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE.”

Additionally, you may activate a feature that puts potential spam messages into a separate folder.

Simply go to your device’s settings, choose Messages, then activate the “Filter Unknown Senders” option.

It will collect all of the messages sent to you by individuals who are not in your contact list and place them in a separate text list.

Android users may take similar action by enabling “Spam protection” in the phone’s message settings.

If you think a campaign is breaking the “auto-dialing” rule, the Federal Communications Commission wants you to file a complaint.

You need to just go to FCC.gov/complaints.