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Authorities throughout the US are investigating after stories of textual content messages despatched to black Americans with references to “slave catchers”, plantations and selecting cotton.
In an announcement the FBI mentioned it’s “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.”
The supply of the messages and the entire quantity despatched are unclear, nevertheless, there are stories that they had been obtained in a minimum of 15 states and Washington DC.
Some of the messages talked about the Trump marketing campaign – which strongly denied any connection.
Steven Cheung, a marketing campaign spokesman, mentioned: “The campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”
According to examples posted on-line and cited in information stories, the wording of the messages diversified however typically instructed recipients to report back to a “plantation” or wait to be picked up in a van, and referred to “slave” labour.
The messages seem to have began on Wednesday, the day after election day. Among the recipients had been faculty college students and youngsters.
In an announcement Derrick Johnson, head of the civil rights group NAACP, mentioned: “These actions are not normal.”
“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,” Johnson mentioned.
Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, which can also be investigating the messages, mentioned: “These messages are unacceptable. We take this type of targeting very seriously.”
The messages were reportedly received across southern states, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, California, Washington DC and others, US media say.
One recipient, Hailey Welch, told a University of Alabama student newspaper that a number of college students on the campus had additionally obtained the messages.
“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,” Ms Welch told The Crimson White. “I was just stressed out, and I was scared because I didn’t know what was happening.”
In several states, top law enforcement officials said they were aware of the messages and encouraged residents to report them to the authorities if they received them.
The office of Nevada’s attorney general said it was working to “probe into the source of what appear to be robotext messages”.
The office of Louisiana’s attorney general said it had discovered that some of the messages could be traced back to a VPN in Poland, but that “no authentic supply” had been discovered up to now.
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