No messaging programs can run on the Text message carrier network that may promote unlawful, unapproved, or illicit content, including but not limited to:
Programs must operate according to all applicable federal and state laws and regulations. In addition, the content must be legal across all 50 states. All content must be appropriate for the intended audience. Additional legal and ethical obligations apply when marketing to children under age 13, and such programs might be subject to additional review by the Text message carrier. Aggregators and Message Senders are expected to enforce restrictions on their networks to prevent onboarding these types of content.
If determined to support any of the following restricted content, the Text message carrier reserves the right to take actions including, but not limited to:
The following content categories are considered deceitful and nuisance campaigns which may result in high volumes of SPAM complaints on the Text message carrier network. Due to these issues, we will no longer support any campaign under the following categories, regardless of any prior approval. Messaging use cases that support the disallowed content outlined below may request an official exception in writing by the Text message carrier through an official Text message carrier exception approval process. Any exception that existed before September 1, 2020, should be considered invalid.
Phishing is the practice of sending messages that appear to come from reputable companies but trick consumers into revealing personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Any messages that constitute fraud or scam which involves wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. These messages generally involve money and/or some sort of business transaction.
Marketing messages must be truthful, not misleading, and when appropriate, backed by scientific evidence to meet the standard held by the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Truth in Advertising” rules. The FTC Act prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising in any medium, including text.
Consumers may choose to block unwanted messaging traffic on the Text message carrier network. To protect our consumers and keep non-consumer messaging healthy, the Text message carrier has launched an internal compliance and policy monitoring program. In conjunction with CTIA efforts, the Text message carrier's program will monitor messaging campaigns, and audit notices may result in violations against industry best practices and the Text message carrier Code of Conduct. Immediate action must take place shall external-monitoring efforts or the Text message carrier-monitoring efforts identify traffic as a potential for consumer harm, with Severity-0 representing the most extreme violations. The Text message carrier reserves the right to protect our consumers by turning down a messaging campaign on a case-by-case basis.
For Severitys:
If there are several offenses on Content Provider and/or application address, this may result in the indefinite suspension of the messaging sender and campaign(s).
The Text message carrier may, at its discretion and at any time, suspend, terminate, or not approve any Messaging Program it feels does not promote a legal, age-appropriate, or positive customer experience. All content must adhere to all applicable laws and support a functioning age gate when associated with, but not limited to, sex, alcohol, firearms, tobacco, and/or any other age-restricted content that must comply with legal regulations. Non-acceptable age gating functions include but are not limited to Yes or No responses. The age-gate mechanism should include the date of birth verification during the consent opt-in of the consumer.
The Text message carrier supports all political parties and messages to their constituents. To run political messaging, the requirements are the campaigns run on the correct non-consumer channel. We require all parties who support political messaging services to follow CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, CTIA Political Campaign Messaging Document, as well as the Text message carrier Code of Conduct. We especially require any political campaigns to honor “STOP” opt-out requests from subscribers.
The Text message carrier policy regarding shopping cart reminder notifications is as follows:
FTEU is currently available only for Shortcode messaging programs. FTEU programs must display a clear call-to-action, capture consumers’ affirmative opt-in, send an opt-in confirmation message, and abide by customers’ requests to opt-out. However, all FTEU programs are exempt from displaying “message and data rates may apply” in advertisements, terms and conditions, and messages. If the content provider’s messaging program needs free delivery, the program must be supported on a dedicated Shortcode.
All content should be appropriate for the intended audience. Messaging content for controlled substances or distribution of adult content might be subject to additional Text message carrier review. The Text message carrier retains the sole discretion to determine if the content is allowed or not. Messages should include robust age verification at opt-in (e.g., electronic confirmation of age and identity). The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples types of content not allowed under this provision:
The Text message carrier cares about charitable donations and protecting consumers from fraudulent harm. There are two paths in which charitable donations are supported on the Text message carrier network:
Charitable donation programs must conform to the non-profit messaging guidelines in the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices. All Charitable Organizations must meet the following qualifications:
Furthermore, charitable donation programs supported by a DCA must provide the following requirements:
Messaging campaigns supporting emergency notifications are suggested to run on FTEU provisioned Shortcodes. If an emergency notification needs to be sent at the Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial alerting authorities, it is suggested to use IPAWS/WEA and integrate local systems that use Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standards with the IPAWS infrastructure.