When a campaign's text engagement drops for no obvious reason, the cause is usually filtering, and the maddening part is you can't see it directly. The carriers don't send a bounce or a warning; the messages just don't arrive, and it looks like bad content or a cold list. Here's why political texts get filtered and how to diagnose it.
Why do carriers filter political texts?
To stop spam and fraud. Carriers filter aggressively because the alternative is a network flooded with scams, and they'd rather block a borderline legitimate sender than let spam through. The filters look for the profile of a bad actor, and any message that fits that profile gets throttled or blocked, regardless of the sender's intent.
What triggers filtering?
The common culprits:
- No registration. Unregistered 10DLC traffic is the biggest trigger, an unregistered sender looks exactly like a spammer.
- Content flags. Spammy formatting, public URL shorteners, unclear sender, or restricted-category words. See content rules.
- High opt-out or complaint rates. A spike tells the carriers your traffic is unwanted, and they respond by filtering.
- Sudden volume spikes from a new or unseasoned sender, which look like a spam blast.
- Poor sender reputation accumulated from any of the above.
How do you diagnose a filtering problem?
Work backward from the drop. If engagement fell off a cliff, check registration first, is your 10DLC and Campaign Verify current? Then check content, did a recent message use a shortener or trip a formatting flag? Then check your opt-out rate for a spike that signals unwanted traffic. Because filtering is invisible, you diagnose it by ruling out its causes rather than by seeing an error. The fix is almost always upstream: register properly, clean the content, and keep opt-outs low. See the benchmarks for the numbers to watch.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my political texts not being delivered?
Most likely filtering. The top cause is missing 10DLC registration, followed by content flags, a high opt-out rate, or a poor sender reputation. Carriers filter silently, so engagement just drops.
How do you know if your texts are being filtered?
You usually can't see it directly, there's no bounce. You diagnose it by ruling out causes: check registration, content, and opt-out rate when engagement drops unexpectedly.
How do you fix a deliverability problem?
Upstream. Complete 10DLC and Campaign Verify registration, clean up content and links, and keep opt-out rates low to rebuild sender reputation.
Keep reading: what 10DLC means for your campaign and political text content rules. For registration, see The Campaign Registry.