On Dec. 24, 2023, conservative activist Laura Loomer alerted consumers to an upcoming change in the terms of service of the telecommunications company T-Mobile via a screenshot and a post on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
According to Loomer's tweet and the screenshot, the company "quietly updated their TOS [terms of service] to include fines for content they don’t agree with."
The original tweet was viewed more than 10 million times and the message was shared across different social media platforms, from Facebook to TikTok.
(@LauraLoomer on X)
While terms-of-service changes were indeed coming, Loomer's tweets weren't accurate.
T-Mobile is not going to begin fining everyday customers who distribute content that the company doesn't agree with. In posts on T-Mobile's support forum, representatives from the company explained that the change will only affect commercial, mass-texts, like those found in marketing campaigns, and that no private users will be fined.
The original screenshot from Loomer's tweet linked to a support page for Bandwidth.com, a separate communications company that provides some of the services subject to the fines.
Snopes reached out to Loomer for comment but has not yet received a response.