Federal authorities across the United States are investigating several racist text messages being sent out from unrecognized phone numbers to several people post-election.
The texts have been reported in states including Maryland, New Jersey, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, New York and South Carolina. The messages came just hours after the polarized presidential election came to a close this week.
‘You Have Been Selected for Cotton Picking’
Screenshots of the offensive texts that were sent out are being circulated on social media. The messages, which had almost identical language, told the recipient they had been “selected for cotton picking” and asked them gather their belongings.
“Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van,” read another message, “be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation.”
Black social media users across the country said they have received similar text messages. Many of the recipients are college students from a wide range of schools nationwide, including Ohio State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, the University of Southern California and Missouri State University, according to NBC News.
FBI Releases Statement, Messages Sent from Burner Phone Numbers
“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,” the FBI said in a statement Thursday.
It is unclear who is behind the mass text messages, what motivated them or how they obtained phone numbers for swaths of Black people. But some of the anonymous numbers appear to be tied to TextNow, a text messaging service that allows users to obtain untraceable, “burner” phone numbers.
A TextNow spokesperson told NBC News in a statement that it is aware of the messages. “As soon as we became aware, our Trust & Safety team acted quickly, shutting down the accounts involved within the hour,” the statement said. “TextNow is proud to be an inclusive service offering free mobile text and data to millions of Americans. We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.”
