The FBI and Justice Department are investigating mass racist texts sent after the election

WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple federal and state agencies are investigating how mass racist texts were sent to Black people across the country in the wake of this week's presidential election.

The text messages calling for slavery were sent to black men, women and children, prompting investigations by U.S. authorities FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

The anonymously sent messages were reported in several states, including new York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland And Tennessee. The FBI said it communicated with the Justice Department about the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating along with federal and state law enforcement agencies.

“This news is unacceptable,” said a statement from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. She said the agency “takes this type of targeting very seriously.”

Although the texts varied slightly, they all told recipients to “get on a bus” that would take them to a “plantation” to work as slaves, officials said. They said the messages were sent to school-age children and students, causing significant distress.

Whoever sent the messages used a VPN to disguise their origin, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Thursday morning.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said his office is processing multiple reports of racist text messages sent to Black residents, including children. Officials said the messages appeared to be part of a nationwide campaign targeting black people after the election.

“These messages are terrible, unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Brown said in a statement.

Brown said in an interview that it was disturbing that children were sometimes referred to by name in mass texts that are typically based on records collected about adults, such as campaign donors or magazine subscribers.

“This is an intimidating, threatening use of technology” that likely violates several laws, Brown said. He said investigators would “use every tool and resource at our disposal to hold accountable whoever was behind these text messages.”

Phone service provider TextNow said that “one or more of our accounts” were used to send the racist text messages and that it quickly disabled those accounts for violating its terms of service.

“As part of our investigation into these messages, we learned that they were sent through multiple wireless carriers in the United States, and we are working with partners and law enforcement to investigate this attack,” the Canada-based company said in a statement on Friday.

Major carriers AT&T and Verizon both said it was an industry-wide problem and forwarded their comments Friday to the CTIA, a wireless communications trade group.

The U.S. wireless industry has been working in recent days to block thousands of text messages and the numbers that send them, said CTIA spokesman Nick Ludlum. An industry initiative is working with law enforcement and has “identified platforms used by malicious actors to send these messages,” he said.

These racist text messages span the country and primarily target Black Americans, and especially Black children in middle school and older.

Nicole, a mother from North Carolina who asked that her last name not be used because of her profession, said she was disturbed and worried about the messages her high school daughter showed her Thursday night. The text messages told them to prepare to return to the plantation. This was her daughter's first real experience with this type of racism, Nicole said, and as a mother, she didn't want to have to have these conversations with her children.

“It's like a slap in the face and shows me that this is still an issue that hasn't changed at all,” she said.

Nicole said her daughter didn't really say much after the text, deleted the message and went to bed. Nicole said she had to sit and process her feelings. She said the situation was so shocking that it didn't feel real and she was sad for her daughter.

“She has a lot of friends of different races. She is the one who sees no color and no difference. I feel for her, it really showed her that not everyone is like her,” Nicole said. “Racism is still a very important issue in our country right now.”

Nicole said parents need to be vigilant, especially with older children, and have difficult conversations even if you don't want to or feel like you have to.

“However your child feels about it, approach it with open arms, be very receptive to it and just take it day by day.”

Several historically black college students received a message with a similar tone but different wording. Dr. Robert Greene II, an assistant professor of history at Claflin University, said he has heard stories about it from his students as well as from campus officials. Greene said he thinks the timing of these mass messages is not only intentional, but also the focus on young black students.

“It's a way to say, particularly to black college students, that this is the world that they live in now, that this kind of outright racial intimidation is becoming the norm again in American society and American politics,” Greene said. “There is no doubt that fear and intimidation are at the core of what is happening with these text messages.”

This type of intimidation towards the black community is not a new phenomenon. In the early 20th century and around the time of World War II, intimidation occurred through physical violence through oppressive methods such as poll taxes, Greene said.

But what is different this time is the form of communication and the introduction of technology makes this an even more sinister tactic, he added.

“The technology we take for granted that brings us all together through the internet, social media and cell phones is now also being used to intimidate people,” Greene said. “It actually adds to the atmosphere of fear and paranoia. Surely there is the feeling: if they can send me a text message, how else can they get in touch with me? What else do you know about me personally?”

Those responsible for sending the messages took advantage of a mass messaging industry designed to help serious marketers reach people on their phones.

“This is now the primary mode of communication for most Americans,” said Cori Faklaris, an assistant professor of software and information services at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “People who need to advertise or market services go where the people are. Unfortunately, the scammers and haters are also following suit.”

Faklaris said they also likely used collections of personal information that could be purchased relatively cheaply on some parts of the Internet. When combined with other data, such as where people live or previous purchases, Faklaris says it can be easy to use machine learning algorithms to infer demographic information.

“All of this means that it may be easier than most people realize to really accurately guess the race or ethnicity of the person associated with that phone number,” she said.

Unlike email or social media, the US regulates text messaging like a utility and tries to remain neutral when it comes to content shared via text message. As a result, there are few filters that could have blocked this week's flood of racist messages, Faklaris said. There is no universal system in the U.S. to flag texts as suspicious or unwanted before they are viewed, she said.

But after an explosion of text message scams that accelerated during the pandemic, Faklaris said law enforcement has developed better investigative tools and it should be “relatively easy for authorities to track down this particular attack.”

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Matt O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Lea Skene in Baltimore contributed.