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Jared Kushner called the CEOs of AT&T, Verizon, & T-Mobile to complain after the Trump campaign was blocked from sending text messages to people who hadn’t signed up for them. by @tomlobianco in @Politicsinsider ($) https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-team-is-battling-cellphone-companies-over-campaign-spam-texts-2020-7
What followed was a convoluted sequence of legal wrangling. The cellphone companies viewed the texts as a possible violation of federal anti-robocall laws and Federal Communications Commission rules that come with hefty fines, two Republicans told Insider.
Trump countered that the cellphone companies were stifling its ability to reach voters. It said the texts did not violate a 1991 law that set strict limits on telemarketing and robocalling and formed the basis of anti-spamming measures ruled on by the FCC.
"Any effort by the carriers to restrict the campaign from contacting its supporters is suppression of political speech. Plain and simple," Tim Murtaugh, Trump's campaign communications director, said in a statement to Insider.
Caught in the middle are millions of cell customers getting hammered with breathless fundraising requests, dire election predictions and paranoid messages meant to drive them to the polls on Election Day.
Lawyers for the Trump campaign and the cell companies are still fighting over what kinds of messages the campaign is allowed to send and what the companies have the power to stop. The showdown threatens to continue through Election Day.
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