- The Washington Times - Saturday, November 9, 2024

Federal officials are investigating a series of racist text messages sent to Black and Hispanic people in multiple states.

Messages sent to Black people told the recipients to report to a plantation to pick cotton, while those to Hispanic individuals were told they would be deported, recipients said.

The FBI, Justice Department, Federal Communications Commission and other agencies are investigating.

The NAACP tied the flood of racist texts to the results of the 2024 presidential election.

“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. … The threat  … perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era,” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement Thursday.

The message “said he has been chosen to be part of group B to go pick cotton at a plantation, and he will be picked up by a black van and to be ready by 6 p.m. And he said a lot of his Hispanic friends have also gotten the message saying that they will be deported,” Nicole Nuñez, whose school-aged son received the message, told Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC-TV.

Officials for President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign said there is no connection between the campaign and the messages.

“The campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said according to the BBC.

Messages were sent to people in Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Connecticut, California, Nevada, New York and the District of Columbia, from phone numbers with area codes spread across 25 states, according to CBS News.

The FBI said it 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 … we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities.”

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said “these messages are unacceptable. That’s why our Enforcement Bureau is already investigating and looking into them alongside federal and state law enforcement. We take this type of targeting very seriously.”

The telecommunications industry is also working to stop the texts. Canadian phone service provider TextNow, which lets people generate a phone number for themselves for free and which supports itself through ads, has disabled numerous accounts sending the racist messages.

“As part of our investigation into these messages, we learned they have been sent through multiple carriers across the U.S. and we are working with partners and law enforcement cooperatively to investigate this attack,” TextNow told The Associated Press.

CTIA, a trade association representing carriers such as Verizon and AT&T, has blocked thousands of texts and associated numbers. CTIA spokesperson Nick Ludlum told the AP that an industry-wide initiative is working with law enforcement to find out the people responsible.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.

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