Ahead of the Federal Communications Commission's December Open Commission Meeting and consideration of the Wireless Messaging Service Declaratory Ruling, National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp issued the following statement:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is planning to vote on a proposal that will cut down on spam text messages that Americans across the country receive. Far from being merely annoying, spam text messages raise the price of communications services for all customers, and the FCC’s proposal to fight spam text communications has National Taxpayers Union’s (NTU) full support.
What the proposal would do is formally affirm traditional text messaging (Short Message Service, or SMS; and Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS) as an information service, rather than a telecommunications service. This would give carriers more power to fight spam and allow them to stay ahead of spammers’ tactics, rather than relying on a larger, slower, clunkier bureaucracy to attempt to regulate spam text messaging. Taxpayers will, in turn, be spared the costs of such a bureaucracy.
SMS and MMS spam messaging is historically lower than spam messaging on other platforms due to its distinct status as an information service. The FCC affirming this definition will be an important step in fighting spam text messages - and result in good outcomes for consumers and taxpayers.