States work to tackle racist text messages sent to Black people nationwide
State attorneys general across the country are urging people to notify the authorities if they received one of the racist text messages sent Wednesday to scores of Black people, telling them they had been "selected" to pick cotton "at the nearest plantation."
They said anyone who received these texts should contact local law enforcement, the FBI, or file complaints with state agencies if they feel threatened. New York Attorney General Letitia James directed recipients to file a complaint with the office's civil rights bureau, while Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison encouraged anyone who received the message to fill out a complaint form with his office.
The FBI said it is investigating the case but would not confirm to NBC News if they have information on whether the text messages originated in the country or overseas. A law enforcement source told NBC News that several branches of the FBI have been deployed, including criminal, cyber and counterintelligence agencies.
Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said its enforcement bureau is also working alongside state law enforcement.
Devereaux Adams, 27, of Atlanta, is one of several Georgia residents who reportedly received the texts. Although the messages vary slightly in language — and some mention President-elect Donald Trump — they follow a similar script: "Our Executive Slaves will come get you ... be prepared to be searched down once you've enter the plantation."
"I was just disappointed, scared, because I have no idea how this person in particular received my phone information. I have no idea how that was even possible," Adams said. He added: "I feel like the text confirmed my suspicions of what I knew would happen" if Trump won.
The messages were sent to Black people of all ages, including children. A range of colleges nationwide, including Ohio State University and Clemson University in South Carolina, released statements condemning the messages and urging students who have received these texts to report them.
Several recipients who spoke with NBC News expressed fear and wondered how those behind the text messages accessed their personal phone numbers. It is unclear who is behind the mass text messages, what motivated them or how they obtained phone numbers for swaths of Black people.
A spokesperson for TextNow, a text messaging service that allows users to obtain untraceable, "burner" phone numbers, denounced the messages in a statement to NBC News and said the company acted quickly when they learned of the texts, "shutting down the accounts involved within the hour," the statement said.
Lance Beaudry, founder of TextSpot, another anonymous text messaging service, said a new user attempted to send out one of the racist texts Wednesday afternoon but the company's AI system flagged the message for "language that is highly concerning and could be interpreted as exploitative or coercive." TextSpot said it immediately blocked and banned the user from accessing the service.
NBC News traced the number of the person's account to Philadelphia. A phone call to the number went unanswered.
"If it was going to work out, I'm sure they would have tried to send to thousands" of people, Beaudry said, "but we stopped that from happening. That's when we realized this is happening all over the country."
He added that the company's alert system was initially meant to catch spam or phishing text messages.
"It's rare that we have seen blatantly, you know racist comments," he said, adding that he believes other telecom carriers will use this case to improve their own internal safety systems. "I'm glad we could play a small part in preventing any more spread of hate."
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murill said in a statement that the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation traced some of the messages to a VPN, or virtual private network, in Poland. But the FBI told NBC News that a VPN from another country does not necessarily mean the text messages originated there.
Kumi Wolf, of Michigan, said it was "disheartening and very dehumanizing" to receive the text message. She's among several recipients who were disappointed by the outcome of the presidential election and saw the text messages as salt on an open wound.
"I just don't understand how anyone could think like that and want to send out a mass text like that to make people feel even more hurt than they already feel," Wolf told NBC News. "I just thought that maybe after the election we could at least figure out how to pick up the pieces."
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, condemned the text messages on Thursday and said, "If we can find the origin of these messages which promote this kind of ugliness in our name we will obviously take legal action to stop it."
A spokesperson for the CTIA, the official trade association representing the wireless communication industry, told NBC News in a statement that it has blocked thousands of the messages and the numbers sending them. The association urged anyone receiving spam text messages to forward them to the number 7726 or "SPAM" to report them to their wireless provider.
"Through CTIA's Secure Messaging Initiative, participants have identified platforms bad actors used to send these messages and are working with law enforcement on this matter," Nick Ludlum, chief communications officer at CTIA, said in a statement.
