Do candidates have the right to campaign by texting voters?



An SMS (illustration). – S. Pouzet – Sipa

A few hours before the ballot, perhaps you too have received an unsolicited text message from a political party? Many voters have indicated on social networks that they have received text messages in recent days from candidates for regional and departmental elections, without their consent.

Hundreds of thousands of Bretons thus received this week an SMS from the head of the list of the National Rally (RN) to the regional ones. “Hello, Gilles Pennelle, RN candidate in the regional elections in Brittany. Take two minutes to hear me defend our beautiful Brittany ”, was it written in the message. In the Grand-Est, voters were also solicited with an SMS sent by the team of Laurent Jacobelli, head of the RN list: “For less taxes, less immigration, more security and local employment , to defend our identity, I need you, a voice must not be missing ”.

This method, considered intrusive by many citizens, is not new, and has tended to become widespread in politics in recent years. Already in 2020 during the municipal elections in Paris, nearly 500,000 people had received a message calling for a vote from Agnès Buzyn, then a candidate for LREM. Emmanuel Macron had also used this method for his presidential campaign in 2017, just like Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the Europeans in 2019.

A legal practice, but very supervised

The National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil), confirms that this method is legal. She specifies that phone numbers can be retrieved in two ways by political parties. “A candidate or a political party can buy or rent a database of telephone numbers from a private company. The telephone number may also have been transmitted on the occasion of a sponsorship ”, indicates the CNIL.

“In these cases of indirect collection of coordinates, the terms of the initial collection are not necessarily known to the party or candidate who reuses them or even adapted to political prospecting”, however specifies the organization which therefore recommends “that a the first telephone message be sent to the persons concerned in order to obtain their agreement to be contacted especially for political communication purposes ”.

This practice, although legal, remains very limited. “Since June 9, 2021, a reporting platform enables the CNIL to be alerted to electoral canvassing practices which do not conform ”, thus indicates
the public service site. “On the basis of these reports, the CNIL will be able, if necessary, to carry out checks on the players concerned. In the event that an illegal practice is detected, it can quickly adopt corrective measures in accordance with the GDPR ”, it is specified.

What to do to stop receiving SMS from candidates?

The CNIL recalls that “citizens have the right to oppose the use of their telephone number for political communication purposes, without having to justify the reasons for their action”. If a person considers himself to be the victim of bad practices, he can therefore a report with the public body, which, depending on the evidence gathered, may initiate an action.

According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), political parties are also required to provide an unsubscribe link allowing a person to oppose the use of their number. The latter can also directly contact the political party or the company that retrieved the phone number to request the deletion of its data.

Another solution is to simply block the number that was used to reach you. Smartphones today offer many options, both on iOS and Android, to prevent receiving phone calls or messages.





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