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Comment by maxwell | Hacker News Reader

The FCC classified SMS/MMS as unregulated, filterable "information services" rather than regulated "telecommunications services".

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sms-mms-deemed-infor...

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They should really update the "Mission and strategy" chapter on their Wikipedia page [1]. In particular the part about "Protecting Consumers & Public Safety" seems horribly outdated!

I will have to look up how this works in the EU and here in The Netherlands. Something to do for the weekend.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commiss...

I really would like to see what was the legal reason behind that, I know the US has issues with gov't agencies using their opinions as law but I thought mail was constitutionally protected?

The FCC just makes decisions, we're talking regulations here, not laws. They justified it with "preventing spam" and enabling competition with unregulated OTT apps.

I'm glad that Twilio fought for Title II governance: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/60001324418.pdf

Where was everyone else?

As far as the sanctity of the U.S. Mail, it only applies to sealed envelopes/packages, and Congress can ban items from the mail (e.g. lottery pamphlets, spurious tokens, gasoline, etc.)

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/96/727/

Doesn't congress make a law saying breaking x regulation carries y penalty and at the same time gives the agency power to decide what constitutes breaking x? I know for a fact that BATFE does this rather frequently. Also, thanks for the clarification about the secrecy of US mail. I apreciate it

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