Here’s what to do about those annoying political text messages

Moments before Kamala Harris made a last-minute appearance during this weekend’s SNL cold open, Maya Rudolph as Harris pretended that she was about to text every voter in the US — a dig, of course, at the flood of texts we’re all getting sent to our phones from and on behalf of the presidential campaigns.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like the barrage of daily spammy text messages from both campaigns is worse than ever. In fact, I’ve already voted, but even that hasn’t spared me from the distressingly urgent and increasingly unhinged text missives reminding me that THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF OUR LIFETIME! That DEMOCRACY IS ON THE BALLOT and that DONALD TRUMP WANTS TO JAIL YOUR GRANDMA. Or that KAMALA HARRIS WILL APPOINT TERRORISTS TO HER CABINET. Fortunately, according to the 800,000 text messages sent to me every day, the only thing I have to do to make it all better is to CLICK HERE TO DONATE.

This is one of many reasons, by the way, why my smartphone’s stock messages app is not the messenger I use on the daily. The data brokers who are in the business of buying and selling our personal information without our knowledge are truly repugnant, loathsome individuals, but that’s a rant for another time.

The question of the moment: What, if anything, can be done about the political campaign texts?

Well, there’s good and bad news.

Let’s start with the bad news first. There’s not a lot you can do. Having said that, you’re not totally out of luck if you’re tired of all the texts. First and foremost, let’s start with the low-hanging fruit:

Texting “STOP” in all caps in response to these texts can be taken as an opt-out command by the automated systems sending these messages. Some of the texts even invite you to do so. What’s more, a “STOP” command might (and I stress might) delete your number from the sender’s database. Meanwhile, you can also try this:

“The other thing that folks can do if they receive unwanted text messages is they can forward those spam text messages to the Federal Communications Commission,” John Verdi, the senior vice president at the Future Privacy Forum, told a local Chicago news station. The way to do that is by forwarding the text messages to the text short code 7726, which spells out SPAM for span on your phone

If you do ever feel compelled to make a donation to one of the campaigns, it would be wise to set up a burner email account when you do so. That way, the inevitable barrage of campaign communications you get will be directed there. Last but not least: Be aware that some percentage of the political texts you’re seeing on your phone now through Election Day is probably from scammers. Think before you click.