The FBI said last week that it is investigating a barrage of racist text messages sent to Black people across the country after the election. On Friday, the agency said it has received reports that Hispanic and LGBTQ people were also targeted by similarly threatening text messages.
“Some recipients reported being told they were selected for deportation or to report to a re-education camp,” the FBI said in a statement, adding that some messages were sent via email.
Although the FBI said it had not received any reports of text messages that resulted in violent acts, the agency said it is looking into all incidents and working with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Reports that Black people were getting racist text messages began on the morning of Nov. 6, hours after the presidential election was called for Donald Trump. The anonymous text messages used different wording but were similar in nature, telling people that they’d been “selected” to pick cotton on a plantation.
Some of the texts referred to the recipient by name, and those who reported receiving those messages were as young as middle school students. Several of the messages also referred to Trump’s election win; his campaign has denounced the text messages and disavowed any connection to them. Authorities in several states and federal agencies are investigating the origin of those text messages. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said last Friday the Louisiana Bureau of Investigations’ cyber team had traced some of the messages to a VPN in Poland, but the original source is still undetermined. The FBI did not say whether it believes the offensive messages to LGBTQ and Hispanic recipients are from the same source as the previously reported messages.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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