Individuals throughout the nation acquired racist textual content messages within the days after Donald Trump was elected to a second time period as president, and now federal authorities are investigating.
“In a number of states, together with Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, black girls, males and faculty college students reported receiving racist textual content messages from an unknown supply urging them to report back to a plantation to select cotton,” the NAACP mentioned in a information launch. The messages mentioned variations of “You could have been chosen to be a home slave” or “You could have been chosen to select cotton on the nearest plantation,” based on screenshots and information studies. I additionally usually instruct recipients the place to go or when to be prepared “With all of your stuff.”
CBS Information studies that messages had been despatched from space codes in a minimum of 25 states, however a number of had been disconnected by Thursday. CBS energetic accounts discovered had been linked to TextNow, which permits customers to create free telephone numbers. TextNow instructed CBS that it “grew to become conscious that a number of of our accounts could have been used to ship textual content messages in violation of our phrases of service” and closed them.
Federal Communications Fee Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel known as the messages “unacceptable” in an announcement and mentioned the company's enforcement workplace was already investigating. “We take any such focusing on very significantly,” she says. The FBI beforehand mentioned it was “involved with the Division of Justice and different federal authorities on this matter” and inspired the general public to report threats of violence to native legislation enforcement.