Illinois AG investigating racist texts targeting Black residents
CHICAGO - Federal and state investigations are underway as racist and offensive text messages circulate across the country, targeting Black Americans. The messages, originating from unknown numbers, began popping up on cellphones following Election Day.
Illinois officials confirm that residents of the state, including students, are among those who have received the texts. The messages contain hateful language and alarming references to slavery, plantations, and deadlines to be at certain locations.
"Here in the State of Illinois, we received reports from a school district," said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. "We stand against such hateful rhetoric. We will investigate it and where it steps over the line of anything criminally, we’ll act accordingly to hold those responsible."
Raoul says the school district that reported the harmful messaging is in Bloomingdale, Ill., and shares that the texts are similar to what residents in other states have also received.
Since Wednesday, reports indicate that messages have reached residents in New York, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Ohio, and more.
"Absolutely horrifying," said V.S. Subrahmanian, professor of computer science, Northwestern University.
Subrahmanian says, at this point, it's too early to say with certainty, "however, given the fact that all these messages were received at or about the same time and that they all have a common theme, one would tend to suspect that the source is a common source."
The Louisiana Attorney General’s Cyber Unit reported that some of the messages were traced to a virtual private network (VPN) located in Poland, though federal authorities have not yet confirmed this link.
As for how residents were targeted, Subrahmanian says their information likely came from a data breach.
"Virtually every industry sector that has information about individuals has been hacked. And one would suspect, in many cases, hacked by similar threat actors," said Subrahmanian.
That includes health records, for example, "which typically include racial information," Subrahmanian added.
He recommends screenshotting messages like these but encourages recipients not to engage with the sender.
"I wish the carriers gave us more reporting options such as this is junk, and this is hate messaging. Those are not the same thing and should not be treated in the same way," said Subrahmanian.
In Illinois, the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau protects the civil rights of all residents.
"Hate has no place in the state of Illinois. Full stop," said Raoul.
Raoul encourages anyone receiving these messages to report them to local law enforcement, the Help Stop the Hate hotline at (877) 458-HATE or to the Illinois Attorney General's Civil Rights Bureau.