People in at least 14 states including Michigan reported receiving a racist text message the day after the election, saying they’d been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation,” and threatening harm. The texts primarily targeted people of color, according to investigators.
TextSpot is a Grand Rapids-based software company that manages mass texting for small businesses. Co-founder and CEO Lance Beaudry says someone signed up as a user and tried to send out the message, but it was flagged by a built-in AI tool and sent to a company manager for review.
“Someone from our team saw that and immediately did not allow that to be sent. We blocked and banned the user, so they did not successfully send that message from TextSpot.”
Beaudry’s team also began tracking who sent it.
“We were able to track the IP address of the user that signed up to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”
TextSpot turned over their findings to law enforcement and are now researching what can be done to prevent something like this from happening.
“We know words have power and its our responsibility to make sure messages sent through our platform are inclusive and respectful.”
