NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It used to be telemarketer and scam phone calls that drove everybody crazy. Now, a lot of those callers are sliding into your text inbox instead. We asked a few people to sound off about the issue that we saw walking around the Gulch neighborhood.
"It’s a shame," said David Short.
"It’s freaking annoying," said Kevin Bravo.
"If I have to stop what I’m doing to check my phone for a bulls---t message, it’s annoying. It’s on that level," said Patricia Dupuis.
We're talking spam texts — seemingly endless texts asking all of us if we're selling our house or need help filing taxes.
"The most annoying is especially for older people, like my aging parents, who get them and think they’re legitimate," said Adrienne Oliver.
Tennessee Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican from Sumner County, has introduced HB 805 that would establish a "Do Not Text List" similar to Tennessee'sDo Not Call List. Violators would face a $2,000 penalty per text in violation.
"It doesn’t matter if it originates in Tennessee or not; if you’re texting a Tennessean, then this would be able to add you to the Do Not Text list so that those people just have to leave you alone," said Lamberth.
There are exceptions. Legitimate nonprofits, businesses you've worked with before and vendors who personalize messages directly to you can all still type away. Thanks to federal protections, politicians running for office can too.
"Obviously the politicians who write our laws, they like to maintain the possibility to contact you," said Nick Leonardo, NewsChannel 5's Legal Analyst.
Leonardo also points out there's not much a state law could do for messages originating out of the country.
"It’s virtually impossible to stop something that is originating outside the boundaries of the United States," said Leonardo.
Lamberth acknowledged that too, but he said something is better than nothing.
"You should have the right to be able to say, 'look — this is my number; leave me alone,'" he said.
The mere prospect of fewer texts seemed to lift a lot of people's spirits.
"If they can figure out how to stop it; absolutely, that would be great," said Short.
"I’ll move to Tennessee if that’s the case. I’ll get on that list right away because it’s freaking annoying," said Bravo.
HB 805 passed unanimously through the Business and Utility Subcommittee Tuesday and has several more hurdles before it comes to a full floor vote.
