Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

The Commission must prioritize the safety of America’s cell phone users over the income of the text platforms found to be continuing to transmit scam texts. [...] The alternative mechanisms available to consumers during the interim period between the Commission’s notification and the blocking order are the “Report Junk” option included on some texts,20 and the option to dial “SPAM” 21 and report the text to one’s cell phone provider. [...] Every text transmitted by a provider represents a source of income to the multiple parties involved in the transmission and delivery of texts.22 To incentivize providers to stop transmitting scam text messages, the Commission must make it more expensive for them to transmit illegal texts compared to the revenue they receive from those texts. [...] If the provider can show that the scam texts were allowed into their system in error, and that the provider eliminated the illegal texts within a few days, that might be sufficient to avoid the fine or the temporary blocking. [...] As we have explained, requiring blocking of the texts from text providers only after they have been identified by the FCC seems unlikely to change the basic dynamic that drives these illegal texts: the providers are making sufficient income from these messages to make it more profitable to keep making the texts and risking the punishment.