NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- RoboKiller, the
app that eliminates unwanted spam calls and texts, reveals over 5
billion political text messages reached Americans in October alone
- an 85% increase from September. According to RoboKiller's
proprietary political message trends, these estimated totals mark
the highest number of political messages sent in a single month on
record.
2020 MONTHLY
POLITICAL MESSAGE TOTALS
|
|
Month
|
Estimated
Republican Texts
|
Estimated Democrat
Texts
|
Total
Political
Texts
|
January
2020
|
244,130,290
|
34,840,489
|
256,704,967
|
February
2020
|
305,294,849
|
49,730,976
|
327,066,731
|
March 2020
|
382,100,207
|
71,044,376
|
417,059,916
|
April 2020
|
478,298,046
|
101,506,993
|
531,892,751
|
May 2020
|
599,034,632
|
145,108,954
|
678,705,990
|
June 2020
|
350,439,888
|
120,196,336
|
470,636,224
|
July 2020
|
747,533,492
|
222,164,300
|
952,550,431
|
August
2020
|
1,215,366,173
|
623,932,849
|
1,809,301,773
|
September
2020
|
1,869,531,967
|
912,630,892
|
2,734,926,097
|
October
2020
|
3,284,724,435
|
1,836,908,384
|
5,060,050,472
|
STATE-LEVEL POLITICAL MESSAGE TRENDS,
OCTOBER 2020
In October 2020, California, Florida, Texas, New
York, and Pennsylvania
residents were among the top receivers with a combined 871 million
political text messages - 35% of the total messages sent in
October 2020.
RoboKiller's October political message trends indicate that both
Republican and Democratic parties focused their political text
message efforts on swing states and states that had early voting in
attempts to influence voter turnout and generate last minute
campaign donations.
TOP 10 MOST
POLITICALLY TEXT STATES, LAST 30 DAYS
|
|
State
|
Republican
Texts
|
Democrat
Texts
|
Total
|
California
|
154,679,458
|
80,319,413
|
234,998,871
|
Texas
|
162,872,885
|
56,441,294
|
219,314,179
|
New York
|
122,269,882
|
61,336,774
|
183,606,656
|
Florida
|
100,205,582
|
38,793,128
|
138,998,709
|
Pennsylvania
|
63,342,398
|
30,953,368
|
94,295,766
|
Georgia
|
54,357,011
|
20,400,832
|
74,757,843
|
Illinois
|
50,815,972
|
20,987,823
|
71,803,795
|
Ohio
|
50,947,467
|
19,895,726
|
70,843,194
|
New Jersey
|
47,443,823
|
21,020,369
|
68,464,191
|
North
Carolina
|
40,279,630
|
19,255,974
|
59,535,604
|
What is causing the explosion of political
text messages this election season?
The uptick in text messages vs. phone calls in 2020 is
reflective of the changing political campaign landscape and how
parties and politicians are targeting voters. RoboKiller first
identified a shift in June 2020, when
political text totals increased by 50% from May 2020 and robocalls decreased 17%. Since then,
the number of texts have continued to rise by an average of 30%
each month, while political robocall totals remain
stagnant.
These trends indicate that political text messaging is playing a
critical role in 2020 campaigns, especially when it comes to
fundraising. Nearly 80% of the text messages RoboKiller identified
included a donation request to campaigns, Super PACs, or
third-party fundraising organizations such as WinRed or
ActBlue. With COVID-19 limiting in-person campaign tactics such as
rallies or door knocking, texting has become one of the primary
ways political campaigns are generating funding and voter support
for one of the most contentious presidential elections in
history.
A list of RoboKiller's top 100 most sent political text
messages by political party can be made available upon
request.
Are all of these political messages
legitimate?
Although phone scammers are always trying to take
advantage of highly publicized current events like this
presidential election, not all messages are scams - in fact the
majority of messages RoboKiller identified in October were sent by
politically affiliated organizations. Almost 50% of October 2020 political messages received by
RoboKiller customers came from short codes, which are five or six
digit phone numbers used by political campaigns to send and receive
text messages.
However, a legitimate source does not always mean they are
wanted messages or contain factual information. Text messages and
robocalls containing misleading information about mail-in voting
and political candidates were another pain point for Americans this
year. However, in recent months, RoboKiller has found that
political texts containing misinformation targeted towards
vulnerable voters in specific areas are happening at a lower rate
than other election-related messages like donations or election
surveys.
RoboKiller is working diligently to identify messages that
include misinformation to hold senders accountable. If you're aware
of any targeted robocall or text message containing misinformation,
RoboKiller may be able to help.
Will these political text messages stop after
the polls close on November
3rd?
Given the uncertainty surrounding when America will have a
declared winner of the presidential election, RoboKiller predicts
political text message volume may continue to stay at elevated
levels between the time the polls close on November 3rd and even after the election is over.
Though no texts of this nature have yet to be identified,
RoboKiller will be monitoring closely to ensure political texts are
not misused to incite any action outside of donation requests and
voter support following the official poll results.
More information regarding RoboKiller's findings, including
state-level data and tips on how Americans can unsubscribe from any
unwanted political messages are available upon request.
About RoboKiller:
RoboKiller is one of the top iPhone utility apps in the US, helping
users block over 500M telemarketers
and robocalls from calling their phones. With over 5 billion
robocalls made to US consumers each month, phone spam continues to
be the #1 complaint to the FCC, driving hundreds of thousands of
RoboKiller app downloads per month. RoboKiller, a Teltech brand, is
a division of Mosaic Group, an IAC Company (NASDAQ: IAC).
RoboKiller employs an unbiased, anonymous machine-learning
based approach to understand political message trends. The
estimates above are based on RoboKiller's proprietary data and user
feedback and are for information purposes only. Robocall trends,
text trends, and featured data are not a representation of any
single political party, person, or organization's campaign
efforts.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/record-setting-5-billion-political-texts-sent-in-october-2020-301165329.html
SOURCE RoboKiller