Dive Brief:

• The FCC is seeking comments through April 22 about Blackboard’s petition to protect school mass notifications through its Blackboard Connect service.
• If the mass notifications are interpreted as being for “emergency purposes,” whether they are about campus shootings or school events, they are safeguarded from violations to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Campus Technology reports.
• Complaints citing that act often come from individuals who got the messages mistakenly and without their consent, and they are costly to service providers like Blackboard.

Dive Insight:

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is meant to protect individuals from unwanted telemarketing calls. Blackboard argues the emergency purposes exception to the act was meant to be interpreted broadly. That’s why it thinks pre-recorded, auto-dial communication from schools to its students or parents should not be blocked, regardless of content of the individual messages.

Fines from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act cost $500 per violation and Campus Technology reports Blackboard, as the service provider, may not be the only one on the hook for those fines. Schools actually sending the communication could be targeted, too.