Mayor of St. Louis among those targeted by racist mass texts

How BLACK ENTERPRISES as we’ve previously reported, the racist mass message was received by countless black people across the country, and among that number is the mayor of st. Louis.

According to , St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and her son were there among those who received the texts whose origins the FBI is currently trying to find out.

According to the St. Mayor’s Office Louis, Jones’ son, received the text on November 7, and the mayor received an identical email on November 9.

A spokesman for the mayor’s office released an announcement on Jones’ behalf shortly after receiving the news.

“I’m furious that anyone would think it’s okay to send messages like this to children or anyone else. I happened to be with my son when he got it, and I had seen it before, so I was ready to talk to him and tell him it was a cruel hoax. It is completely unacceptable that anyone should have to struggle with being defined as property or less than any other human being, especially in a society where black and brown people have always been treated like second-class citizens if we have been treated like citizens.” the statement reads.

The statement continued: “The undeniable fact that this news is spreading is a reminder that we still have loads of work to do to get rid of this sort of ugliness in our country. I fear it should only worsen because our nation will once more have a person at the highest of our government who time and time again belittles other people because of their race, gender or disability. “

According to the Associated Press, the messages were sent anonymously to recipients in several statesincluding New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee.

The FBI is coordinating its investigation with the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, in addition to with federal and state law enforcement agencies.

Several officials, including FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, have indicated that text messaging constitutes a troubling use of technology.

According to the AP, in an interview, Brown stated, “This is an intimidating and threatening use of technology,” which likely violates several laws.

Phone service provider Text Now, which provides its users with phone lines that use existing infrastructure from various carriers to send and receive text messages and phone calls, said in an announcement that its service was used to send text messages.

“As part of our investigation into these messages, we have learned that they were sent via multiple carriers across the United States and we are working with partners and law enforcement to investigate this attack,” the Canadian company said.

According to Cori Faklaris, assistant professor of software and data on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the perpetrators likely purchased the information somewhere online for a low price.

“It’s the primary way most Americans communicate today,” Faklaris said. “So people who want to advertise or promote services go where the people are. Unfortunately, scammers and haters are also following suit.”

Faklaris continued: “All of this means that it may be easier than most people realize to truly accurately guess the race or ethnicity of the person associated with that phone number.” Faklaris also added that because of increased scam activity through the pandemic, that “it should be relatively easy for authorities to track down this particular attack.”