WASHINGTON-Target Wireless, a provider of short message service (SMS) advertising, was given permission Thursday by the Federal Election Commission to provide political advertising without disclosing who is paying for the advertising.
In a four-to-one vote, the FEC said that SMS advertising of 160 or less characters is exempt from disclosing the sponsor of the advertisement, because SMS is similar to bumper stickers, which also have limited space.
FEC Commissioner Danny Lee McDonald opposed the decision because he felt that if someone could come up with an effective SMS political advertisement, that entity could disclose who sponsors the advertisement.
“If you are ingenious enough to figure out how to get these messages on in today’s society, there is probably some way to be ingenious enough to inform the public where it is coming from,” said McDonald.
