It is not a terribly good time to be on the Federal Communications Commission. Inexplicably, the commission is still missing its fifth commissioner almost two years into its current term. Why? Because Congress has to approve a commissioner, and… they aren’t. They just aren’t. This isn’t a political blog and I tend to not make too many comments in that direction. Just, come on Congress. Do something so the FCC can do something.
With only four of its five commissioners in place, the FCC is effectively blocked from taking any new action on anything, unless it’s so popular that literally everyone can get on board. They finally have found something with such universal support that they can actually start talking about a rule about it.
Spam texts stink
I’m not the only one who hates spam texts. Voice calls have been nearly ruined by persistent robocalls. Even though the FCC did eventually take action there, it was too little too late and unsolicited voice calls have made an entire generation dread hearing the phone ring (or buzz.) I begged the FCC in August to do something about spam texts before the texting experience was destroyed forever. Now, it seems they are. I’ll take credit, because Axios is taking credit and I don’t think they deserve it either.
It’s the first step, and it’s going to take a while. The FCC has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that lays out their plans to stop the ongoing barrage of spam texts. This basically boils down to forcing carriers to use the same tools they use to cut down on spam voice calls. If a text seems to be coming from a phone that isn’t where the text is coming from, it gets blocked. If it’s coming from an unused number, it’s blocked. That sort of thing. It seems like a good step if you ask me.
Because this is the government, there has to be a comment period during which anyone, including representatives of the cell phone companies, can say whether or not they like this proposed rule. The FCC isn’t required to listen to those comments, as we learned in years past. FCC Commissioners are totally free to ignore comments, although they would face scrutiny from the media of course.
Who’s against this idea?
This would seem to be a very popular and easy-to-implement rule. The current version of it passed the commission 4-0. That’s pretty rare. But, sadly, it does look like there is one group that still wants to preserve the way things are. It’s not carriers, surprisingly. I wasn’t able to find one article from any carrier claiming this is a bad idea, or that it would raise customer rates.
No, the group that opposes it may come from inside the house. Literally. Inside the House, and the Senate. Politicians have leaned heavily on unsolicited texts for years. They use them to fundraise. They’re effective, more effective than easily blocked emails or phone calls. Blocking these texts would limit their ability to fundraise from regular folks, unless there is a carveout or exception for political texts. Such an exception exists for robocalls, by the way, so it’s not that hard to imagine.
Just. Do. Something.
As I said, it’s not a great time to be on the FCC. For over a decade, it’s been used as a political football, and to great effect. We’ve also seen that both the FCC and the Supreme Court have chided Congress for failing to pass laws that would take some of that burden off. Congress could pass a law that forces cell carriers to act. They passed the CAN-SPAM Act many years ago, and this would be similar. But instead, Congress is relying on the FCC, and that just makes things a little more difficult.
Sigh… sometimes it’s really hard not to go political on this blog. I hope I’ve done a good job of giving you a fair assessment of the facts here. Now it’s up to you to demand that the people in Washington do their jobs.
