Normally this would be in the IAJGS Public Records Access Alert but since most of us use mobile phones and receive spam texts I am posting it here in addition to the Alert.

The Federal Communications  Commission (FCC) is calling for market comments on the plans its fight against robocalls to target also unsolicited text messages. The regulator unveiled a proposal for mobile providers to apply caller ID authentication standards to text messaging and actively block illegal texts before they get to customers. It proposes requiring mobile wireless providers to block texts, at the network level, that purport to be from invalid, unallocated or unused numbers, as well as numbers on a Do-Not-Originate list. It also wants to know if there are other ideas for ending the stream of unwanted texts, including consumer education strategies. The number of complaints jumped 146 percent in 2020 to 14,000 and rose again last year to 15,300.

Comments may be submitted for 30 days.  To submit your comments go to: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-start-new-robotext-proceeding. From this link you may obtain  the notice of proposed rule making as a doc or pdf file.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee