Aryan Grover
Passing a 9-0 majority decision in Facebook’s favour, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the unwelcome text messages sent by the social media giant are not in violation of a 1991 federal law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
Noah Duguid was the one to bring the lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act against Facebook in 2015 to the California federal court after he received unsolicited automatic text messages from Facebook. It was contended that Facebook’s system that sent such automated text messages was in the likeness of a traditional automatic dialling system.
However, the law requires the equipment being used for automated messages to use a “random or sequential number generator”, which Facebook’s technology does not.
The automatic text messages were apparently “security-related”, which are linked to the users’ telephone numbers and are triggered when users try to log in to their Facebook account when they wish to log in from a new device or internet browser. Facebook contended that the law’s provisions did not intend to prohibit companies from sending security notifications which let Facebook keep its users’ account safe.
Sergei Lember, appearing as the advocate for Duguid said, “This is a disappointing ruling for anyone who owns a cellphone or values their privacy.” He also stated that this allows anyone to absolve themselves of any liability as long as they use technology similar to Facebook.