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Another issue is text messages and T-Mobile. When my wife sent me a message saying, "pick up some sea weed," T-Mobile was blocking it. Fortunately, we transiti

by tlogan 4y ago

Another issue is text messages and T-Mobile. When my wife sent me a message saying, "pick up some sea weed," T-Mobile was blocking it. Fortunately, we transitioned to using iMessages, which resolved that problem. However, I continue to receive various spam and scam messages - but T-Mobile is not blocking them.

firstSpeaker 4y ago
One is probably has legal repercussion and the other has none but profit!
- phpisthebest 4y ago
  There is no legal repercussion in the US for the T-Mobile to allow that text, or even a text with implicit references to illegal activity.
  - tlogan 4y ago
    Regarding T-mobile, they claim that content of the text msg must be legal across all 50 states. Not 100% sure which state and with law causes this but that is the reason they gave me.
    - phpisthebest 4y ago
      Well the content of that message as stated by the OP is 100% legal across all 50 stays, even direct references to illegal drugs in messages is legal across all 50 states. the drugs are what is illegal, not the messages.
    - anoonmoose 4y ago
      If that was legally required of T-Mobile, don't you think it would be likely be legally required of all carriers? If that was true, don't you think there'd be a lot of people here confirming that Verizon and AT&T do the same thing? I am incredibly suspicious of the idea that this is a legal requirement, not a choice.
      - LawTalkingGuy 4y ago
        Sue them for aiding and abetting any crime that happens where one of the perpetrators carried a cellphone with their service. "No, they clearly acknowledge their service is used for crime - they block these other messages." For bonus points, find a case where blocking the 'weed' message got someone killed. (You order drugs, the guy says 'weed on the way' but you don't get the message so you don't meet him, he thinks it's a setup and gets mad ...)
    - akira2501 4y ago
      Then how are they considering themselves a "common carrier?" Isn't this precisely against that definition?
      - gruez 4y ago
        Complying with laws violates being a "common carrier"?
        dboreham 4y ago
        What law are they complying with here?
        anigbrowl 4y ago
        There is no law criminalizing the utterance of certain words, that's absurd. By your logic saying 'I'm going out doors to weed the lawn' or 'Our neighbor was arrested for illegally selling weed' are somehow evidence of crime.
    - anigbrowl 4y ago
      But that's clearly ludicrous. Individual words can't be illegal. Why would you not immediately dismiss this as the BS it is?
mmh0000 4y ago
Well, thank you for sending me down a rabbit-hole. To save other people the effort, yep, t-mobile does block SMS messages based on keywords[0][1]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/h8cotr/tmobile_silently_blocking_outbound_sms_messages/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/h8cotr/tmobile_sil... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/i1fk1z/tmobile_are_you_blocking_specific_words_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/i1fk1z/tmobile_are...
- rodgerd 4y ago
  I was surprised the first time that I visited the States as an adult - I picked up a SIM for the week I was there, and discovered that I couldn't visit Oglaf on mobile data. It's quite fascinating, because I come from a country with an actual official government censor's office. But I've never been blocked from accessing a smutty joke comic here. Yet in the US a major mobile provider takes it upon themselves to do so!
- from 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure the reason "verification code" is blocked is because people will buy a bunch of retail prepaid unlimited plan sim cards and use them to send A2P messages like verification codes instead of paying Twilio or someone like that. Carriers don't like this because they charge more for A2P SMS than P2P.
wankle 4y ago
My wife likes seaweed. I texted her the same text you used. She got the message no issues on her phone. SMS is not a guaranteed delivery service. Perhaps the message simply didn't go through? I see later in the comments you paraphrase something you said you were told by a T-Mobile representative. Perhaps the representative didn't even know if something was blocked but felt they were on the defensive?
- Koshkin 4y ago
  I guess, "seaweed" is not the same as "sea weed" to them
  - wankle 4y ago
    I guess but as I stated, I used the SAME text as the parent, "sea weed".
can16358p 4y ago
So if I send a message like "did you finish the essay about weed use?" or "what about going to Amsterdam next month so we can smoke weed" (which are perfectly legal) they will block it? Good that no one uses those crappy SMS services and feed those crap carriers more data.
- elliottcarlson 4y ago
  SMS is federally regulated, so while it might be legal where you live, there are a ton of roadblocks on the SMS side. Had to deal with this via Twilio in the past - and you can't get a list of the banned terms, just notices that messages were sent using them (including CBD which happens to also stand for Central Business District for some people). But yeah, you can have this issue on any SMS message sent in the US. More info from Twilio: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045004974-Forbidden-Message-Categories-for-SMS-and-MMS-in-the-US-and-Canada https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045004974-Fo...
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    That's asinine though. It means you're preemptively blocking messages about anything from gardening to local news stories. Blanket keyword keyword filtering is an admission of having no clue, I can't understand why you would defend it. It can't be 'because it's federally regulated' because that would literally make it a 1st amendment issue.
    - andrekandre 4y ago
      > It can't be 'because it's federally regulated' because that would literally make it a 1st amendment issue. thats what i was thinking as well... it seems for the us, its mostly about spam prevention and marketing messages (referred to as SHAFT in the link below)... seems not intended for individuals but those messages intended for commerce? https://www.omnisend.com/blog/sms-regulations/ https://www.omnisend.com/blog/sms-regulations/
      - anigbrowl 4y ago
int_19h 4y ago
Facebook also blocks private chat messages with links to some cannabis-related websites (and presumably other things; it doesn't really explain what happens, you just suddenly get an error message).

by tlogan 4y ago

firstSpeaker 4y ago

One is probably has legal repercussion and the other has none but profit!

phpisthebest 4y ago
There is no legal repercussion in the US for the T-Mobile to allow that text, or even a text with implicit references to illegal activity.
- tlogan 4y ago
  Regarding T-mobile, they claim that content of the text msg must be legal across all 50 states. Not 100% sure which state and with law causes this but that is the reason they gave me.
  - phpisthebest 4y ago
    Well the content of that message as stated by the OP is 100% legal across all 50 stays, even direct references to illegal drugs in messages is legal across all 50 states. the drugs are what is illegal, not the messages.
  - anoonmoose 4y ago
    If that was legally required of T-Mobile, don't you think it would be likely be legally required of all carriers? If that was true, don't you think there'd be a lot of people here confirming that Verizon and AT&T do the same thing? I am incredibly suspicious of the idea that this is a legal requirement, not a choice.
    - LawTalkingGuy 4y ago
      Sue them for aiding and abetting any crime that happens where one of the perpetrators carried a cellphone with their service. "No, they clearly acknowledge their service is used for crime - they block these other messages." For bonus points, find a case where blocking the 'weed' message got someone killed. (You order drugs, the guy says 'weed on the way' but you don't get the message so you don't meet him, he thinks it's a setup and gets mad ...)
  - akira2501 4y ago
    Then how are they considering themselves a "common carrier?" Isn't this precisely against that definition?
    - gruez 4y ago
      Complying with laws violates being a "common carrier"?
      - dboreham 4y ago
        What law are they complying with here?
      - anigbrowl 4y ago
        There is no law criminalizing the utterance of certain words, that's absurd. By your logic saying 'I'm going out doors to weed the lawn' or 'Our neighbor was arrested for illegally selling weed' are somehow evidence of crime.
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    But that's clearly ludicrous. Individual words can't be illegal. Why would you not immediately dismiss this as the BS it is?

mmh0000 4y ago

Well, thank you for sending me down a rabbit-hole. To save other people the effort, yep, t-mobile does block SMS messages based on keywords[0][1]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/h8cotr/tmobile_silently_blocking_outbound_sms_messages/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/h8cotr/tmobile_sil... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/i1fk1z/tmobile_are_you_blocking_specific_words_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/i1fk1z/tmobile_are...

rodgerd 4y ago
I was surprised the first time that I visited the States as an adult - I picked up a SIM for the week I was there, and discovered that I couldn't visit Oglaf on mobile data. It's quite fascinating, because I come from a country with an actual official government censor's office. But I've never been blocked from accessing a smutty joke comic here. Yet in the US a major mobile provider takes it upon themselves to do so!
from 4y ago
I'm pretty sure the reason "verification code" is blocked is because people will buy a bunch of retail prepaid unlimited plan sim cards and use them to send A2P messages like verification codes instead of paying Twilio or someone like that. Carriers don't like this because they charge more for A2P SMS than P2P.

wankle 4y ago

My wife likes seaweed. I texted her the same text you used. She got the message no issues on her phone. SMS is not a guaranteed delivery service. Perhaps the message simply didn't go through? I see later in the comments you paraphrase something you said you were told by a T-Mobile representative. Perhaps the representative didn't even know if something was blocked but felt they were on the defensive?

Koshkin 4y ago
I guess, "seaweed" is not the same as "sea weed" to them
- wankle 4y ago
  I guess but as I stated, I used the SAME text as the parent, "sea weed".

can16358p 4y ago

So if I send a message like "did you finish the essay about weed use?" or "what about going to Amsterdam next month so we can smoke weed" (which are perfectly legal) they will block it? Good that no one uses those crappy SMS services and feed those crap carriers more data.

elliottcarlson 4y ago
SMS is federally regulated, so while it might be legal where you live, there are a ton of roadblocks on the SMS side. Had to deal with this via Twilio in the past - and you can't get a list of the banned terms, just notices that messages were sent using them (including CBD which happens to also stand for Central Business District for some people). But yeah, you can have this issue on any SMS message sent in the US. More info from Twilio: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045004974-Forbidden-Message-Categories-for-SMS-and-MMS-in-the-US-and-Canada https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045004974-Fo...
- anigbrowl 4y ago
  That's asinine though. It means you're preemptively blocking messages about anything from gardening to local news stories. Blanket keyword keyword filtering is an admission of having no clue, I can't understand why you would defend it. It can't be 'because it's federally regulated' because that would literally make it a 1st amendment issue.
  - andrekandre 4y ago
    > It can't be 'because it's federally regulated' because that would literally make it a 1st amendment issue. thats what i was thinking as well... it seems for the us, its mostly about spam prevention and marketing messages (referred to as SHAFT in the link below)... seems not intended for individuals but those messages intended for commerce? https://www.omnisend.com/blog/sms-regulations/ https://www.omnisend.com/blog/sms-regulations/
    - anigbrowl 4y ago

int_19h 4y ago

Facebook also blocks private chat messages with links to some cannabis-related websites (and presumably other things; it doesn't really explain what happens, you just suddenly get an error message).