Following Trump win, FBI warns of ‘slave plantation’ texts targeting African Americans

The FBI and several Black political leaders warned the public about a string of offensive text messages sent to African Americans across the U.S. following former President Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election. 

On Wednesday and Thursday, hundreds of African Americans took to social media to share text messages they received following the announcement of Trump’s election win. 

The messages say the recipient has been "selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation" and to look out for vans that will take them to a plantation. Some are explicitly signed as from the "Trump & Vance Administration." 

At least one person received a voicemail that used the voice of Trump to relay a similar message. Some messages caused alarm because they used victims’ real names. 

The FBI said on Thursday that it 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.” 

Has anybody else been getting these weird ass Trump slavery texts & calls/voicemails? I feel like I need to change my number because how did these people find my job??? pic.twitter.com/E4Xv9iJyqs

— フーリ (FOOLY URAMESHI) 🤙🏽 (@ChrissaSJE) November 7, 2024

“As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities,” the FBI added.

The FBI declined to comment on who was behind the campaign or answer any questions beyond their statement. 

NBC News reported that some of the phone numbers used were tied back to a mass text service called TextNow. 

A spokesperson for TextNow told Recorded Future News that it uncovered “one or more accounts” used to send text messages in violation of their terms of service. 

“As soon as we became aware, our Trust & Safety team acted quickly and disabled the related accounts in less than an hour. As part of our investigation into these messages, we learned they have been sent through multiple carriers across the US and we are working with partners and law enforcement cooperatively to investigate this attack,” the company said. 

“TextNow is proud to be an inclusive service offering free mobile calling, text, and data to millions of Americans. We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send messages that are intended to harass or spam others and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.”

The company did not answer further questions about where the accounts in question were based or who was tied to them. 

The text messages appear to have targeted African Americans on college campuses, with dozens of people reporting them at large schools across the South and Northeast. Some middle school children and high schoolers have also reported receiving versions of the texts. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James released a similar message and urged Black New Yorkers to report the texts to law enforcement as soon as possible. 

“Hate has no place in our country. These racist text messages targeting Black New Yorkers, including children and teens, are despicable,” James wrote on X. 

Clemson University said it was also investigating the texts, which were sent to several of their students. 

In the last week, the FBI has spotlighted several election-related disinformation campaigns and bomb threats sourced back to Russian internet domains.

It’s still unclear how victims were chosen — data brokers collect vast amounts of information on consumers and sell it with few restrictions, which could potentially give the sender a list of names of African Americans paired with their phone numbers. Additionally, such information could be obtained from data breaches or purchased illicitly on dark web marketplaces.

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries called the messages “racist, vile and threatening” and warned that he saw them being “sent to young African Americans throughout the country, including on college campuses.” 

“There are extremists in America who feel empowered,” Jeffries said. “We will not be intimidated by anyone.”