Federal Authorities Investigate Racist Text Messages Targeting Black Individuals Nationwide

Law enforcement agencies are looking into offensive text messages directed at Black individuals nationwide, which instruct recipients to go to a plantation “to pick cotton.” The recipients included Black Americans, encompassing both school and college students, in various states such as Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania. The FBI stated, “The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter.” These messages reportedly began circulating on Wednesday, the day following the election. Certain texts referenced the Trump campaign, which emphatically disavowed any involvement. Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the campaign, asserted: “The campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.” The origin of these anonymous communications and the total volume of messages dispatched remain unknown. In Indiana, a 42-year-old mother provided the BBC with a copy of texts received by her high-school-aged daughter. These messages stated that the daughter had “been selected to become a slave at your nearest plantation” and would be “picked up in a white van” and “searched thoroughly once you’ve reached your destination.” The woman, whose identity is being withheld for her safety, described the messages as “extremely, extremely alarming” and reported feeling “really vulnerable” as a result. She commented, “It’s because of America’s history, but the timing is specific to the day after the election,” adding, “This had to be a strategised effort.” Hailey Welch, another individual who received the texts, informed a University of Alabama student newspaper that multiple students on campus had also gotten these messages. Ms. Welch recounted to The Crimson White, “At first I thought it was a joke, but everyone else was getting them. People were texting, posting on their stories, saying they got them.” She further stated, “I was just stressed out, and I was scared because I didn’t know what was happening.” While the exact phrasing of the messages differed, they typically directed recipients to report to a “plantation” or await collection in a van, and referenced “slave” labor. CBS News, the BBC’s partner network in the US, reported that the texts originated from numbers with area codes spanning at least 25 different states. TextNow, a mobile service enabling free phone number creation, confirmed that one or more of its accounts had been utilized to transmit text messages “in violation of its terms of service.” The company indicated in a statement that it deactivated these accounts within an hour of detecting the misuse. TextNow affirmed: “We do not condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.” The civil rights organization NAACP denounced the messages, attributing them as a consequence of President-elect Trump’s election. Derrick Johnson, the group’s chief executive, stated: “These actions are not normal.” He added, “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.” Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, which is also conducting an investigation into the messages, declared: “These messages are unacceptable. We take this type of targeting very seriously.” Senior law enforcement officials in multiple states acknowledged awareness of the messages and urged residents to report them to authorities if received. Nevada’s attorney general’s office indicated it is endeavoring to “probe into the source of what appear to be robotext messages.” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a statement revealing that officers from the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation had tracked some of the messages to a virtual private network, a system for concealing the origins of electronic communications, located in Poland. Murrill noted that investigators “have found no original source – meaning they could have originated from any bad actor state in the region or the world.” The Indiana mother addressed reports suggesting the messages might have originated internationally, telling the BBC: “It doesn’t make it any safer or better that it could have been foreign.” She further commented, “They know the mindset of America.”