Unsolicited SMS

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Clive Palmer sent an unsolicited SMS…again

Last week I wrote about Australian politician Clive Palmer sending an unsolicited text. Clive Palmer sent an unsolicited SMS…again.

This new text suggested, if elected, he will work to stop politicians from sending unsolicited texts. I asked the obvious question – why send an unsolicited text just to suggest you are working to end unsolicited texts by politicians?

Reported in the media, Clive Palmer apparently sent this second unsolicited text-based on the negative reaction he received from the first text he sent to Australian voters. Perhaps some Australians may view this strategy as “clever”. However, there is no way for someone, like me, who find it annoying to opt out of future messages.

Perhaps Clive Palmer views the publicity he has received from this tactic to be positive. He has received a lot of airplay from the annoyance, including two posts from this Australian fundraiser. Nonetheless, why is it that politicians pass legislation excluding themselves of having to follow the law? Clive Palmer says his text messages are entirely legal under the privacy act. that may or may not be true. Why don’t politicians, at least, follow best practices Australian charities and businesses follow?

 

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Clive Plamer sent an unsolicited SMS without opt-out mechanisms

On Friday, Clive Palmer’s campaign sent me an unsolicited SMS. The SMS, all about fast trains in Sydney, was sent at 233PM. The SMS was sent without any opt-out mechanism.

The fact the campaign is using “Make Australia Great” as a slogan is a real stomach turner for me. I am dual citizens of Australia AND the US and another politician in the US has used a similar slogan the past three years for his own agenda.

The message contains a hyperlink, which I clicked and it sent me to a page with a warning “Stop – there might be a problem with the requested link”. The message goes on to define why a problem has been highlighted, which includes:

  • A bitly user has reported a problem.
  • A black-list service reported a problem.
  • The link has been shortened more than once.
  • We have detected potentially malicious content.
  • The warning goes on to say “spam or malware is very often propagated by exploiting these loopholes, neither of which bitly allows for”.

Days after receiving the SMS, I clicked the hyperlink again. It appears to be fixed. You no longer get sent to the warming page.  The hyperlink now sends you to the United Australia Party website.

I’d imagine whoever generated this SMS received multiple complaints, including those from the campaign for likely using improper links in the SMS. I hope they have also learned of the need to offer us a way to opt-out. When I attempted to opt-out my message was rejected. Either Clive Palmer does not like “get lost” as opt-out language or the campaign is not fully prepared to receive positive or negative responses through their SMS platform. Clive, check here for ADMA’s paper on opt-out.