SoylentNews

RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

On Thursday the US Senate voted to approave a bill strengthening the FCC's powers to address the reviled practice of robocalling [theverge.com].

A bipartisan proposal, the TRACED Act, was introduced [theverge.com] by Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Ed Markey (D-MA). If passed, it would raise the fines the FCC is permitted to levy on robocallers, and increase the statute of limitations for bringing those cases. It would also create an interagency task force to address the problem, and push carriers like AT&T and Verizon to deploy call authentication systems like the pending STIR/SHAKEN protocols [theverge.com] into their networks.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has repeatedly pushed for carriers to deploy STIR/SHAKEN with little apparent movement, and has indicated that if this is not done the FCC will "have to consider regulatory intervention [theverge.com]"

It is estimated that last year alone, approximately 48 BILLION robocalls were placed in the United States.

The TRACED Act, which passed with a vote of 97-1, now moves to the House of Representatives. There it will contend with other anti-robocall bills already waiting for consideration.

Earlier this month, Pai proposed new rules to allow carriers to more aggressively block robocalls [soylentnews.org].

Hopefully lesson 22 [youtube.com] will come to our phones.

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