this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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Privacy

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In recent weeks, I’ve noticed a rise in censorship regarding SMS communication that’s not being discussed. At all. I’m concerned that it may become a slippery slope that eventually effects us all. I don’t have any dramatic, prose-ridden introduction this week. Just some news, facts, and observations I wanted to share. So this week, follow me down the rabbit hole as I explore an existing but rising threat to our free speech and what we can do about it.

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[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 41 points 4 months ago (3 children)

if you’re sending or trying to receive a text message with swear words in the U.S., chances are the carrier will block it.

So much for the land of the free. Not even the EU with their chat control bullshit is pushing it so far.

Thanks for sharing the article.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Are you surprised by this? It is SMS after all. I think you could do this with a basic man in the middle.

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Yeah, no security there, but I wasn’t expecting to see providers doing that. What’s the point.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not surprised they could. I've worked on things that send SMS messages and I'm aware that carriers filter for spam and scams (perhaps not as effectively as one might hope).

I'm surprised to hear of messages being blocked for mere profanity.

Anyway, SMS sucks, default to something else and fall back to SMS as a last resort. Gently encourage your contacts to use Signal.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 months ago

You probably could do this outside the carrier

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I swear in SMS on the daily, and have shared videos of pro-Palestine protests via sms also. I'm a bit dubious. I did read the article, and it sounds like one carrier-specific issue, and (unsurprisingly) MS allowing enterprise customers to control what is said on Teams.

So two examples that are each either platform or carrier specific.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

Freedom of speech is the right to express opinions without government restraint, not without corporate restraint.

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

In a time of rising political instability and distrust of institutions, institutions will turn more and more to censorship and surveillance. We need decentralized, censorship resistant networks to fight back. #nostr is one such network, so is #tor, #freenet, #i2p, etc. And yes, #lemmy #mastodon and #activitypub too.

[–] rdyoung@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I just tested this myself between tmo and GV and no censorship here.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 months ago

We will need to watch closely because this might be a experiment that only applies to a few people.

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I did too, just within TMobile in the US, using the s*** word. Went through just fine.

[–] rdyoung@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

I texted myself "fuck this" and it went through no problem.

[–] rottenwheel@monero.town 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Seems to affect VoIP carriers, I reckon.

[–] rdyoung@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] rottenwheel@monero.town 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The message sending "bad" words came from T-mobile or GV?

[–] rdyoung@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I sent it from my tmo number to my GV number. I can do the inverse as a test too but I don't think anything will change.

[–] rottenwheel@monero.town 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Try it from GV. My hunch is that the filter is set up for outbound SMS that come from VoIP numbers. Reason: both TNO's blog post and jmp.chat reports of censorship stem from Mysudo and jmp.chat users, not regular carriers.

[–] rdyoung@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Just did, again no issue.

[–] jafffacakelemmy@fedia.io 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

in the uk texts are usually free unlimited, and a majority of people have rcs (rich chat services) enabled which means they are end to end encrypted - and uncensorable. RCS is very similar to imessage in results, though it works in a different way.

[–] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

RCS doesn't support encryption natively. Google only has proprietary encryption for Messages app.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

"Secure from our competitors"

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Aha, there we go. I was trying to put "end to end encrypted" and "Google" together and it just would not compute.

Edited to add: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/what-apples-promise-support-rcs-means-text-messaging

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 7 points 4 months ago

AND there have been news that RCS can be blocked for rooted phones and custom operating systems!

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago

RCS is Google so I wouldn't use it

[–] myself@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Always hits me like a truck when I hear Americans still use SMS

[–] SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

iPhone to iPhone uses iMessage. Android to Android uses RCS. iPhone to Android uses SMS, but that will change soon when Apple finally joins the modern age and implements RCS.

Some people also use signal or WhatsApp, but it's not as common here.

[–] Catsrules@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

We are just stuck in our ways over here. We just got tap payments a few years ago. Even then some vendors still don't support tap to pay lol.

I always wondered why the US seems to be a hold out for adopting new technology. It might just because out government is extra slow at getting anything accomplished.

For SMS I wondered if it has something do with communicating between countries. In your experience was their extra charges involved with sending a SMS to someone in another country. (Back in the day when SMS was popular)

Here in the US we can SMS to anyone within the US for no extra charge. And we mostly talk amongst ourselves over here. So cost wise it isn't an issues. If I was talking to people outside the US there is no way I would use SMS.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

Last time I sent one was,.10 years ago maybe ? I can't.remember..

Still.get them. Alas for 2FA

[–] Catsrules@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hold on here is this really true?

I think if texts are failing to send because of swearing this would be headline news as it would affect so many people.

[–] thegreekgeek@midwest.social 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sort of? It looks like this is unique to SMS over VOIP. Which don't get me wrong, it's still fucking stupid. But maybe, just maybe there's a middle ground between getting inundated in robocallers trying to reach us about our cars extended warranty and not being able to send the word Scunthorpe over SMS.

[–] Catsrules@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

After my 5 seconds of research, it seems like those SHAFT rules are more for marketing campaigns when your sending out sms messages on mass. Not for Bob and Susan talking about the latest politics. Not sure why OP is getting limited. I can swear over my Google Voice message and I don't have any issues. I am pretty sure that is SMS over VIOP.

[–] thegreekgeek@midwest.social 1 points 4 months ago

I can too, which is what gets me. Honestly after I think it might boil down to how far removed your provider is from directly getting the number from the FCC(or how trigger happy the entity they're getting the number from). Also possibly if it's considered a landline or mobile number, it looks like those are distributed differently.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 3 points 4 months ago

Don't use your phone when driving.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Interesting. I've noticed that a lot of my text messages to my partner fail to send as well, and I also swear frequently and voluminously. I should test this and see if this is what is going on with my carrier.