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FBI investigates racist text messages sent to black people across US

A picture of the FBI seal on the side of a buildingImage source, Getty Images
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Authorities are investigating racist text messages sent to black Americans across the country telling them to report to a plantation "to pick cotton".

Black Americans, including school and college students, were among the recipients in states including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.

鈥淭he 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,鈥 the agency said.

The messages appear to have started on Wednesday, the day after election day. Some of the messages mentioned the Trump campaign 鈥 which strongly denied any connection.

Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said: 鈥淭he campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.鈥

The source of the anonymous messages and the total number sent are unclear.

A 42-year-old mother in Indiana sent a copy of the texts her high-school-aged daughter received to the 91热爆.

The messages said that the daughter had "been selected to become a slave at your nearest plantation" and would be "picked up in a white van" and "searched thoroughly once you鈥檝e reached your destination".

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety, called the messages 鈥渆xtremely, extremely alarming鈥 and made her feel "really vulnerable".

鈥淚t鈥檚 because of America鈥檚 history, but the timing is specific to the day after the election,鈥 she said. 鈥淭his had to be a strategised effort.鈥

Another recipient, Hailey Welch, that several students on the campus had also received the messages.

鈥淎t first I thought it was a joke, but everyone else was getting them. People were texting, posting on their stories, saying they got them,鈥 Ms Welch told The Crimson White. 鈥淚 was just stressed out, and I was scared because I didn鈥檛 know what was happening.鈥

The wording of the messages varied but generally instructed recipients to report to a 鈥減lantation鈥 or wait to be picked up in a van, and referred to 鈥渟lave鈥 labour.

The texts were sent from numbers with area codes in at least 25 different states, according to CBS News, the 91热爆's partner network in the US.

TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, said it found one or more of its accounts were used to send text messages "in violation of its terms of service". The company disabled the accounts within an hour of discovering the misuse, it said in a statement.

"We do not 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," it said.

Civil rights group NAACP condemned the messages saying they were a consequence of President-elect Trump鈥檚 election.

"These actions are not normal, 鈥 said the group's chief executive Derrick Johnson. 鈥淭hese 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.鈥

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.鈥

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鈥檚 attorney general said it was working to 鈥減robe into the source of what appear to be robotext messages鈥.

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 鈥 a method of masking the origins of electronic communications 鈥 based in Poland.

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

The Indiana mother responded to reports the messages could have originated abroad, telling the 91热爆: 鈥淚t doesn't make it any safer or better that it could have been foreign.鈥

鈥淭hey know the mindset of America,鈥 she said.

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