Political Texts Garner Funds & Scrutiny

Text messages are emerging as a big player in this year’s elections, specifically in terms of fundraising. A full 10% of 2012 presidential campaign donations have come through texts, according to a new report out by Pew. Interestingly, the report also found that Democrats are more likely to donate via cellphones or online, while Republicans are more likely to donate in-person.

As politicians realize the power of text messaging, the increased prominence of political texts has invited further scrutiny by the FCC. Pew’s report comes hot on the heels of an announcement by the FCC that they’ll be taking a closer look at the legality of unsolicited political text messages sent via email-to-text. Scott Goodstein, whose petition spurred the FCC to take a closer look, was optimistic that the FCC’s move will bring “an end to unsolicited text messages.”

SimpleTexting is firmly against any form of SMS spam; the text message marketing we practice is strictly permission-based. Since text spammers give legitimate text marketers a bad name, we champion stronger restrictions against spam.