# MSG-131 — Non-GSM characters silently force Unicode encoding

> Characters outside the GSM-7 alphabet — smart quotes, ™, ®, em dashes, emoji — cut the per-segment limit from 160 to 70.

- **Rule ID:** MSG-131
- **Layer:** Message content (`MESSAGE_CONTENT`)
- **Checks:** `campaign.sample[]`
- **Severity:** LOW — Best practice. Worth fixing, rarely fatal on its own.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Deterministic (settled in code from the submitted values)
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** CTIA, Twilio
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/message-content/msg-131/

## Why this rule exists

A curly apostrophe pasted from a word processor more than doubles the cost of every message and can split a one-segment message into three, and nothing in the authoring flow warns you. The character is visually identical to the straight version, so this is almost impossible to spot by reading.

## How to fix it

Replace smart quotes with straight quotes, em dashes with hyphens, and remove ™, ® and emoji from message bodies. Retype rather than pasting from a word processor.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
Acme Coffee: you're subscribed — replace the curly apostrophe with a straight one.
```