In two separate public comments this week, AttorneyGeneral Lynn Fitch, and a coalition of Attorneys General, urged the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) to stop telemarketing companies from using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)to evade laws that protect consumers from unwanted, illegal robocalls.“
As technology evolves, it is critical that enforcement guidelines andregulations keep ahead of the curve to ensure states have the ability to protect consumers against unwanted, illegal calls and texts,”said General Fitch.“New technology makes it easier for companies already looking to skirt the laws to bombard consumers with robocalls, and it is my hope that the FCC offersclarity to ensure emerging technologies are not used to evade consumer protection laws.”In response to an FCC Notice of Inquiry about the implications of AI forrobocall consumer protections, the State Attorneys General sent a letter urgingthe FCC not to allow AI to create a gaping loophole in enforcement by allowingoutbound calls using AI technology without prior express written consent ofthe consumer.
In the letter, the Attorneys General argue that AI technology isnot the functional equivalent of a live agent and the current prohibition onartificial voice messages in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act shouldapply to AI tech that generates human voices. Read the entire letter here.In response to a separate FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the StateAttorneys General also urged the FCC to reaffirm that VoIP service providersare information services and thus subject to enforcement actions by the Statesto protect consumers from illegal call traffic. Some VoIP providers are arguingthat the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) makes their statusambiguous and gives them a shield against State enforcement when they facilitate illegal robocalls.
In the letter, the “State AGs find no ambiguity orroom for confusion in our reading of the NPRM, or regarding the status of VoIPproviders generally,” but asked “the FCC to clarify that the proposals described in the NPRM do not seek to affect, reclassify, or otherwise impact or alter thetreatment of VoIP service providers, as that classification currently stands withthe Commission.”
Original source can be found here.