11-09-2024 11:31am

Racist Text Received Across the Nation has FBI, DOJ, FCC and State AG's Investigating

Chris Edwards Editor

The Department of Justice has released a statement confirming that a large number of Americans across the country have received a racially charged text that is making individuals uncomfortable and uneasy.

"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.

As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities."

Racist, mass text messages sparked fear and outrage across the country when residents in several states, including Texas and New Mexico, received threatening and offensive statements in the days since the presidential election.

While the phrasing varies among texts, the idea is consistent — the messages call for the recipient to round up their belongings and report to a certain address on a specific date, to work on a plantation and pick cotton. The messages were sent to Black men, women and children all over the country, according to the NAACP. (See one of the texts below.)

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson condemned the messages. He said they are a result of the emboldening of those who spread "abhorrent rhetoric" in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.

The unfortunate reality of electing a President who, historically has embraced, and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes," Johnson wrote. "These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized."

The DOJ and FBI are investigating the origins of the texts and detering if its a consorted and organized campaign of hate.

The messaging has been received across the US. Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, which is also investigating the messages, said: "These messages are unacceptable. We take this type of targeting very seriously.”

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”.

In a statement, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Louisiana Bureau of Investigation officers had traced some of the messages to a virtual private network – a method of masking the origins of electronic communications – based in Poland.

Murrill said investigators “have found no original source - meaning they could have originated from any bad actor state in the region or the world”.