10DLC rejection reasons · Critical
Prohibited or restricted content (SHAFT / high-risk)
Sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco, cannabis, gambling, and loans are restricted or barred on 10DLC. Content in these categories gets rejected.
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Carriers enforce a set of restricted categories often abbreviated SHAFT: sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco, with cannabis, gambling, and loan or debt content usually added. Messages in these categories are either prohibited outright or allowed only through a specific, carrier-approved special-use-case path with extra vetting. If your samples or use case touch one of these, the standard registration is rejected.
Sometimes this is a genuine vertical problem, and sometimes it is accidental, a wellness business whose wording looked like a restricted health claim, or a bar whose samples mentioned alcohol promotions. Read the rejection carefully. If your business is not actually in a gated vertical, the fix may be as simple as removing the language that tripped the filter. If it is in a gated vertical, you need the special path, not a rewrite.
To fix it, either remove the restricted content if it was incidental, or pursue the carrier-approved path for your vertical. Fix will tell you which of these your rejection reflects.
The fix
Remove restricted content, or pursue the specific carrier-approved special-use-case path if the business is in a gated vertical.
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Common questions
What is SHAFT content in 10DLC?
Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco, usually extended to cannabis, gambling, and loans or debt. These categories are prohibited or heavily gated, and messages in them get campaigns rejected unless you use an approved special-use-case path.
My business isn't restricted but I was rejected for content. Why?
The filter can catch incidental wording, like a health claim or an alcohol promotion in a sample. If your business is not actually in a gated vertical, removing the language that triggered it is often enough to pass.