Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr loves to insist he’s being tough on robocalls, which have increasingly rendered U.S. voice communications networks less and less usable. Except whenever you actually dig into his plans, it usually involves making it easier for big companies and Republicans — who often use the same tactics as outright scammers — to hammer you with spam calls you don’t want.
One recent case in point: the Trump FCC is calling for public comment on a petition by the advocacy group Club for Growth that would allow political robocalls — including those using an AI-generated voice — to reach out to cellphones without prior consent.
According to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), FCC approval of the new scheme would subject people to more unwanted, automated calls and could spread misinformation and “deepfakes” mimicking recognizable voices ahead of the midterm elections:
“A federal law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), requires robocallers to obtain consent before making automated calls to cellphone numbers. Callers who ignore the law can face expensive private lawsuits or government enforcement actions.
But the Club for Growth wants to scrap that protection. The petition proposes, instead, that callers be allowed to make AI-generated political calls to cellphones as long as they are limited to three calls per 30-day period and stop within 10 days of being asked to stop – a limitation advocates warn is meaningless due to the multitude of political action committees, campaigns, and non-profits that could make unsolicited, AI-voice robocalls. Allowing calls to continue for 10 days after a stop request will let political callers of any party bombard voters in the run-up to the election.”
Folks interested in providing Brendan Carr some feedback can head to the FCC comment website, type 02-278 on the “Proceeding(s)” line; enter your name and address, type your brief comments sharing your concerns with AI-voiced political robocalls; agree to the privacy terms; review; and submit your comment.
The NCLC has been pointing out for years that letting your voice communications networks get taken over by corporations, debt collectors, and scammers isn’t normal. It’s the direct result of captured politicians like Carr endlessly creating new loopholes that benefit big companies and politicians — which in turn weakens oversight of all offenders and makes the robocall problem endlessly worse.
According to the YouMail Robocall Index, Americans were bombarded with 3.9 billion unwanted robocalls during the month of August alone. Or the equivalent of 5.2 million robocalls every single hour. And those are summertime numbers that generally climb once the fall arrives.
In late April, the Trump FCC also announced it was also considering the development of new “Know Your Customer” rules requiring that the buyer of any new phone present a government ID, a physical address, a full legal name, and an existing phone number at the point of sale. This has raised eyebrows among activists who say there are numerous good reasons to protect cell phone anonymity, and the effort is less about stopping scams and fraud and more about ramping up surveillance in coordination with ICE.