KSHB 41 reporter La’Nita Brooks covers stories providing solutions and offering discussions on topics of crime and violence. Share your story idea with La’Nita.
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The FBI and state law enforcement are working to find the source of messages targeting Black people sent the day after the election.
Apps like WhatsApp have increasingly become tools for criminals—providing a secure platform to talk about drug deals, guns and even hitmen for hire.
Former FBI agent Daniel Brunner has studied the matter.
“They have what you call end-to-end encryption,” said Brunner. “So, it’s very hard for law enforcement to intercept these messages. And the criminals know this, this is not a secret.”
According to WhatsApp's website, they “are prepared to carefully review, validate and respond to law enforcement requests based on applicable law and policy.”
But once messages cross border lines, Brunner says it becomes more difficult to track down users.
“It all depends on the country,” said Brunner. “It really does depend on the country if there’s a cooperation agreement in there. It’s difficult, it’s very very difficult to chase these down and to prosecute, to charge, then you have to extradition. So, there’s a lot, a lot of problems having an international investigation.”
The FBI is investigating that series of racist texts. The texts said you had been picked to be a slave and to expect a bus to pick them up. Students at Missouri State University reported receiving the text.
"People are literally terrified to leave their houses," said one student.
Investigators say some of the messages were tied to TextNow, a text messaging service that allows users to obtain untraceable, "burner" phone numbers.
TextNow wrote in a statement to NBC News which reads in part, "We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages.” Additionally, they shut down the accounts and are working with authorities.
Brunner says even if the users in this case are tracked down, it may be hard to prosecute them.
“It just said we’ll be there at 2:00 to pick you up,” said Brunner. “It wasn’t a threat to kidnap; it wasn’t a threat to violence. So, I think it would be a very difficult time finding a charge, a federal charge, to charge the individual.”
Some of the messages were traced to Poland, but the FBI says that a VPN from another country does not necessarily mean the text messages originated there.
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