Officials at the University of Chicago now say that a threatening Facebook post targeting students was not part of a “hack.”
Last week, school officials said in a campus email that a student’s Facebook page was hacked and someone posted a racially-charged threat with “hateful and abhorrent” attacks on other students. The email said federal law enforcement agencies and third-party website providers were investigating the attack.
“The University takes any such expression of hate very seriously, and we continue to pursue the facts of the case,” the school said in an announcement Monday. “Based on our ongoing investigation we now are confident that the Facebook posting was not created by a hacker. That conclusion does not erase the seriousness of this episode, the harm it has caused to individuals and our broader community, or the consequences for those responsible. Whatever its purpose, the language used in this incident does not constitute discourse and will not be tolerated.”
The update provided little detail on how the message may have been posted to the student’s page and did not say if federal authorities were still investigating.
The students targeted, one of whom spoke to NBC Chicago last Wednesday, said they believed the attack was sparked by an incident on Halloween.
The students said they saw other students dressed as Mexican stereotypes. Photos were later uploaded to Facebook with people in the costumes in offensive poses.
“The pictures not only involved the individuals in the costumes but also kind of made light of police brutality,” said one of the targeted students, Vincente Perez.
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The students started a petition demanding the school address “a culture of racial intolerance." Shortly after the event, a Facebook threat appeared targeting some of those students.
The threat read in part, “Vincente you are next. None of your profiles are safe. This is the beginning of our rape season.”
Perez said the Facebook attack was frightening and called for the school to take action.
