The imminent release of an iPhone update has sparked concern among Republican fundraisers, who fear that the new text filtration system, set to launch in September, will disproportionately hinder conservative fundraising and voter outreach efforts.
This echoes previous Big Tech controversies that have seemingly targeted GOP voters.
Sean Dollman, founding partner of American Made Media Company, the parent company of Launchpad Strategies, which served as the exclusive digital firm for Trump 2024, expressed his concerns to Fox News Digital. "Its no surprise that Big Tech wants to stop Donald Trump and other Republicans from communicating with people, because theyve tried every other method to interfere already," Dollman stated.
He further added, "Big Tech has suppressed him, suspended him, and banned him outright. And now theyre trying to make it so he cant text anybody either. But MAGA wont be stopped, and MAGA will always find a way."
The forthcoming update, iOS 26, will introduce an enhanced text filtration system. This system will divert text messages from unfamiliar numbers with no chat history with the recipient to a separate message folder, which will not notify the recipient.
As explained by leaders from American Made Media Company and Launchpad to Fox News Digital, text messages from recognized numbers saved on an individual's phone will continue to alert recipients and send the messages to their regular text app.
Launchpad Strategies, the exclusive digital firm for the Trump 2024 campaign, played a crucial role in online advertising and consulting during Trump's decisive victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris. The firm, which describes itself as a "full-service Republican digital agency dedicated to helping campaigns win," raised $509 million for the Trump campaign in 2024 and an additional $18 million in funds from 40 other clients during the massive 2024 election year, as reported by Fox News Digital.
The update could potentially influence election cycles, as text messages related to voter registration and campaign rallies are also expected to be redirected to this new folder, according to fundraisers. Data from the 2024 election cycle revealed that Republicans utilized text campaigns twice as much as Democrats, placing them directly in the crosshairs when the anticipated update takes effect in September.
This is particularly significant as the midterms approach, with Democrats aiming to wrest control of the House and Senate from Republicans.
The text filtration's impact is expected to extend beyond politics, potentially affecting texts related to real-life issues such as doctor appointments from a number not saved in a person's phone.
The National Republican Senate Committee, the Senate Republican's campaigning arm, circulated an internal memo in July warning that the iOS update could cost Republicans more than $25 million in revenue, as reported by Punchbowl News.
Apple's practice of filtering texts from unknown numbers is not a new concept, with such a program already in use within the current iOS 18 systems. The current filtration system is by default not activated until a user toggles a button within the "settings" app.
The iOS 26 update is also currently available to the public for beta testing, according to Fast Company. Under the new update, the filtration system will be renamed to "Screen Unknown Senders," but will continue to use ongoing criteria to divert text messages to another folder.
Specifically, if the iPhone owner does not have a contact saved in their phone and if the user has never interacted with the unknown phone number trying to contact them.
The visibility of texts from unknown senders will be enhanced under the new update, with the filtered messages from unknown senders made more easily seen by users with a new filtration button at the top of Apple's Messages app.
This will display a blue badge noting how many unread texts an iPhone user has received from unknown numbers, according to the Fast Company report, which sought to alleviate Republican fundraising concerns over the update.
Republican fundraisers are particularly concerned about history repeating itself, referring to a seemingly similar filtration system with Gmail messages that first came to public attention in 2022.
Studies at the time found that Gmail allowed the majority of emails from left-wing politicians to land in a users inbox, while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates were marked as spam, according to data from North Carolina State Universitys Department of Computer Science that was previously reported by Fox News Digital.
The Gmail filtration system resulted in a $2 billion loss for Republican candidates between 2019 and 2022, Fox News Digital reported in April 2022, citing research from the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senate Committee.
"Big Tech has been silencing conservative voices and actively working against Republicans for multiple cycles. Googles e-mail suppression which affects the GOPs fundraising and GOTV efforts is another egregious example. Silicon Valley oligarchs are suppressing free political speech," then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, then-NRSC Chairman Senator Rick Scott and then-NRCC Chairman Congressman Tom Emmer said in a joint statement back in 2022, as reported by Fox News Digital.
The research found that between 2019 and 2020, conservative candidates raised $737 million on Republican fundraising platform WinRed from Gmail. The data found that just 32% of fundraising emails actually reached recipients, with Republicans estimating they missed out on $1.5 billion in contributions during the 2020 election cycle alone.
The update comes at a time when the Democratic Party is grappling with internal turmoil following the 2024 race, which saw former President Joe Biden withdraw from the election cycle with just over 100 days to go, passing the proverbial mantle to Harris before the loss to Trump. The party has since been trying to regain its political footing after a mass exodus of the working-class vote to the GOP in 2024 and voters rejecting left-wing policies, particularly those surrounding social issues.
Republican fundraisers are already devising strategies to circumvent the expected update, including encouraging recipients to add fundraising numbers to their phones. Screenshots of fundraising text messages reviewed by Fox News Digital in 2025 show texts promoting Trump's name, accompanied by messages that ask recipients to add the number to their contacts or respond to the text to build a chat history.
The texts include messages such as, "From Trump: Did you save my number yet?" or "Download the Trump Contact Card to add me to your address book" or other interactive texts such as, "Trump: If you had 5 minutes with me, what would you say? No links. I just want your reply below."
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