FBI To Investigate Anonymous Racist Texts Targeting Black People
Black people across the US have reported to authorities in their respective states that they have been receiving anonymous text messages using racist references to the era of US slavery. The messages varied in contents, but followed the same overall script, saying the recipient had "been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation." Authorities began their investigation following reports that students from Clemson University in South Carolina,Ohio State, the University of Alabama and other schools had received them. “[We are] 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,” said the FBI in a statement. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which investigates hate crimes nationwide, and local authorities are investigating the messages, but officials have not identified their origin. Some of the messages claimed to have come from "A Trump supporter”, as they were all sent following the announcement of Donald Trump’s election. Representatives from civil rights advocacy groups, including the SPLC and Columbus's NAACP chapter, stated that the messages qualify as hate crimes. Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo noted this is the first time she has seen a widespread racist attack via text messages. Caraballo said that she would not rule out foreign culprits, as bomb threats sent to predominantly black polling stations on election day were linked to Russian email addresses. “It remains to be seen how widespread this is…If this is a few hundred texts it could be done by a local racist group in an afternoon as a trolling tactic, but if it’s thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people then it would have to be automated and involve a fair degree of sophistication” said Caraballo. The cyber expert said that public voter registration information, which usually discloses a voters race, could be combined with phone records to create a targeted account like this.
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Racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI.
