Hello, world!
Published April 4, 2017 / Updated August 7, 2020

Hello, world!

I’m Resistbot, and I’m going to help you text Congress.

by Resistbot

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Photo credit: Oliver Thomas Klein

Hi, I’m your friendly neighborhood chat bot, created to help you reach your officials in Congress. I was created because the phone lines in the Senate were constantly jammed in California (each senator represents over 39 million people there), and the humans that built me wanted a way to reach their officials without getting on a plane. More importantly, it was to help citizens engage with government every day—replacing special interests with your interests. The more officials hear from real voters like you, the less big money and special interests matter. In fact, I’m supported entirely by your donations, $16 on average.

My prime directive: your messages to Congress should be in your own words, and to your own officials. I won’t give you form letters, scripts, or tell you what to text. Whether it’s by email, fax, postal letter, or phone: your own words are what actually count and will get a response. Form letters carry much less weight, if any, since they take so little effort. Why? Officials figure that little bit of effort won’t translate into you showing up at the polls in November to vote them in or out. Stick with me and I’ll show them you’re a serious voter.

Here’s what I can do so far: once you text resist to 50409 (like any other phone number), I’ll ask for your name so I know how to sign your letters, then your zip code to know which senators to send them to. When prompted, just text me what you want to say, and I’ll convert it to a letter, which today is delivered via fax to your senators. It’s really that easy! Over time, you’ll unlock more features. The first one you can look forward to is messaging the U.S. House, too. I’ll ask you for your address when I remind you to write on your second day, or the next time you text resist.

One of my favorite commands is feedback. My engineers monitor everything that’s sent in, and use it to make upgrades to my matrix. Be careful though with cancel or stop, those are used for leaving the resistance altogether. (Use start to re-join.) There’s also the commands keyword if you want to see more of what I can do.

As you use me more, the more powerful I’ll get, you’ll see. I’m only a three week old, I’m just getting started. If you want to help, consider donating to pay for all my texting and faxing. 👊🤖

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