FCC asked to investigate unsolicited anti-gay, anti-Obama text messages

The nation’s largest gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, wants the Federal Communications Commission to investigate mass spam texts urging a vote against President Barack Obama because he supports legalizing same-sex marriage and other progressive issues.

HRC said supporters received unsolicited text messages that said, “Obama endorses the legality of same-sex marriage. Say No to Obama at the polls on Nov 6.”

Other messages included:

• “Obama supports homosexuality and its radical social agenda. Say No to Obama on Nov 6!”

• “Obama denies protection to babies who survive abortions. Obama is just wrong.”

• “Stop Obama from forcing gay marriage on the states. Your vote is your voice.”

• “Seniors cant afford to have 4 more years of Obama budget cuts to Medicare.”

The Washington Post reported that the texts came from ccAdvertising, a firm specializing in political outreach and with a history of spamming cell phone users with unsolicited content.

HRC alleges that the texts violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. If so, the FCC could levy a $10,000 fine for each violation – each text to each consumer.

HRC’s complaint to the FCC states, “We request that the Federal Communications Commission investigate a series of spam texts sent to consumers’ wireless telephones in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (the “TCPA”). Based on information and belief, and given the concentration of calls in a short period of time to a large but unknown number of individuals, we ask you to investigate whether the company ccAdvertising has illegally used auto-dialing technology to send unwanted text messages to consumers.”

The complaint also states, “The messages were purportedly sent by [email protected]. However, the URL Aicett.com simply sends users to a blank web page. The identity of the owner of Aicett.com was hidden, until the internet service firm GoDaddy.com revoked the owner’s anonymity due to a violation of the service’s terms of use. Investigative journalists now report the sender was ccAdvertising, which the Washington Post describes as “a political phone and text-messaging vendor with a history of sending unsolicited messages.

“The consumers did not ask to receive these text messages and did not give their prior express consent to ccAdvertising to have text messages sent to their cell phones. Because ccAdvertising is a repeated violator of the TCPA, and for the reasons outlined below, we urge you to find that ccAdvertising knowingly and willfully violated the TCPA by sending these texts, and impose the maximum fine of $10,000 per violation.”