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Tag: text messages

  • Straight Nonsense: Let’s talk Netflix’s ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’ doc

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    In the column Straight Nonsense, columnist Moises Mendez II takes a queer eye to the insanity of straight culture. Warning: spoilers for Netflix’s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish documentary ahead.

    True crime documentaries are all the rage right now, and it feels like every time a new one is released, it’s more unbelievable than the last. Having watched my fair share of these sorts of documentaries, it’s hard to surprise me — but Netflix’s latest true crime investigation into a truly absurd case out of Michigan actually stunned me, and I’m at a loss for words.

    – YouTube www.youtube.com

    Unknown Number: The High School Catfish documentary is becoming one of the most talked-about films this past week because of its sheer absurdity. The story follows two high school students, Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny, who recount their experiences receiving anonymous text messages harassing them and those around them. For over a year and a half, the two high school freshmen would receive explicit, vile messages — sometimes up to 30 a day.

    While the two dated, the perpetrator would send the messages mainly to Licari: taunting her, calling her ugly, worthless, and anorexic in new ways every day; sending photos of the pair with vomit emojis plastered over Licari’s face; and telling Licari that McKenny didn’t want to be with her, with the perpetrator describing in detail what they would do to Owen, sexually. The worst messages of all were the ones telling Licari to kill herself.

    Some of the text messages included things like: “It is obvious he wants me, his attention is constantly on me … Not sure what he told you but he is coming to the Halloween party and we are both DTF.” And: “He wants nothing to do with you … He think you’re annoying and an ugly ass bitch and wishes you would leave him the fuck alone … Why do you think he is on his phone all the time texting me? … You didn’t get invited to sleep with him, I did. I’m spending the night with him, I’m sharing a bed with him, not you.”

    It’s an incredibly dark story that lasted for months as the town’s police department investigated the source of the messages. The teens’ mothers — Kendra Licari and Jill McKenny — got involved and worked with local law enforcement to get to the bottom of this ordeal. During this time, the police worked with the school’s principal and superintendent to pin down the harasser. But because the phone number frequently changed, they were unable to crack the case. That was until Officer Brad Peter was brought on to the investigation by Sheriff Michael Main.

    Peter works for the Mid-Michigan Computer Crimes Task Force, a partnership between the FBI and local law enforcement, and he was the person to find the culprit. He found out that the bully was using an app called Pinger, which is used to message and call people from different numbers.

    Only one number popped up repeatedly and it belonged to Lauryn’s mom, Kendra.

    Kendra Licari and Lauryn in Unknown Number The High School Catfish netflix documentary

    (L to R) Kendra Licari,and Lauryn in ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’Courtesy Netflix

    For almost two years, this woman was cyber-bullying her own teenage daughter with the most vile and nasty messages — even going so far as to sending her a message (from a burner number) saying, “KILL YOURSELF NOW BITCH.”

    In the documentary, audiences see Kendra get caught red-handed in front of her daughter who has dealt with the relentless bullying for over a year. The mother’s response? She immediately gets up to start hugging Lauryn, saying she can’t be away from her. Her husband and Lauryn’s father, Shawn, is notified that the nightmare has come to an end — but for he and Lauryn, it was just the beginning of a much larger issue. Kendra lied about the family’s finances — she was fired from her job at Central Michigan University and Ferris State because of her performance — according to an investigation from The Cut, it was because she spent “excessive time” on non-work texting and calls.

    Sophie Khloe and Macy in Unknown Number The High School Catfish netflix documentary

    Sophie Khloe and Macy in Unknown Number The High School Catfish netflix documentary

    (L to R) Sophie, Khloe, and Macy in ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’Courtesy Netflix

    As the whole town breathed a sigh of relief, the damage that Kendra caused was met with punishment. In December 2022, she was arrested and in spring 2023, she was sentenced to 19 months in prison on two counts of cyberstalking. While in prison, she was still able to have communication with her daughter, and they messaged regularly through phone calls and emails.

    The reason for Kendra’s behavior, she said during her sentencing, was that after doing months of counseling, she discovered she had a mental illness and mentioned depression — anxiety and suppressed childhood trauma stemming from a sexual assault that occurred when she was a teenager. In the documentary, through a flood of tears, she said did this to keep Lauryn close to her because she felt her daughter drifting from her. Her actions bore the intended results as Lauryn leaned heavily on her mom, who got to act like the hero. The superintendent dubbed Kendra’s actions as “cyber-Munchausen’s,” tearing Lauryn down just to build her back up again.

    Her truly heinous actions quickly became national news and the subject of conversation online, but mainly due to the way she was given space to share her story in the documentary. At the beginning of the film, Kendra comes off a concerned parent up until the moment she’s revealed as the person sending hundreds of egregious messages to her daughter.

    There’s no question about the severity of her crimes, but the general public felt that she should not have gotten access to her daughter after telling her to kill herself — and felt that her prison sentence was too short. On top of that, the documentary rarely challenged Kendra when it came to her intentions, never pushing further than just one question nor was she met with a rebuttal.

    At the end of the documentary, Lauryn expressed wanting to still have a relationship with her mother and moving past this ordeal — which makes sense but you can’t help but feel bad for this young girl who has only ever known this person as her mother. It’s a heartbreaking story and Kendra undoubtedly deserved jail time, but in my opinion, she should not have had contact with Lauryn while there — nor should she be given the opportunity to rebuild her relationship until she’s done some serious mental health work. It’s gut-wrenching to watch a teenage girl, already dealing with the awkwardness of high school, deal with this vitriol from her own mother.

    After watching this documentary, the only thought on my mind was: Are Straight People™ OK? The answer: Absolutely not.

    Moises Mendez II is a staff writer at Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram @moisesfenty.

    Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.

    This article originally appeared on Out: Straight Nonsense: Let’s talk Netflix’s ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’ doc

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  • Michael Proctor kept on ‘full duty’ months after state police learned of profane texts

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    Michael Proctor kept on ‘full duty’ months after state police learned of profane texts

    In a bid to regain his job, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor is appealing his termination, and his filing with the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission claims he was treated unfairly and that the State Police acted inconsistently in his case.

    25 Investigates obtained Proctor’s file with the Commission through a public records request.

    According to a pre-hearing memorandum from his lawyer, Daniel J. Moynihan, Proctor stated that the Massachusetts State Police continued to assign him new cases and kept him on “full duty” for nearly five months after he first revealed his profane text messages to his superiors.

    Moynihan wrote, “after he disclosed the content of the text messages in early February 2024, he was allowed to continue on full duty for an extended period, suggesting his conduct was not initially deemed a cause for immediate suspension.”

    Proctor states he was first confronted with the messages at a federal grand jury on February 1, 2024, and immediately disclosed their existence and content to his bosses.

    Proctor met with 2 State Police lawyers and a Major the following week where he, “disclosed the existence and content of the text messages that were in the possession of the U.S. Attorney,” according to Moynihan.

    It was not until the text messages became public in June 2024, during the Karen Read murder trial that Proctor was suspended and eventually fired.

    The appeal further states that an initial investigation conducted by two State Police captains with the Office of Professional Integrity and Accountability determined “there was no evidence of bias on his part” in the Read case. This stands in contrast to the reason for his eventual firing, which was partially for creating a “perception of bias” with his messages.

    Proctor’s legal team also contends that the trooper had a constitutional right to privacy on his personal cell phone, as there is no State Police policy governing the use of personal devices by troopers.

    “Any and all private text messages attributed to the Appellant were sent on a personal cell phone, on which he had an expectation of a constitutional right of privacy,” Attorney Moynihan wrote.

    The disciplinary action taken against Proctor is described in the appeal as “disparate” and greatly exceeding the punishment given to other members of the department for similar first-time offenses.

    Proctor is scheduled to have a series of hearings before the Civil Service Commission beginning next week.

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  • Racist Text Messages Referencing Slavery Raise Alarms In Multiple States And Prompt Investigations – KXL

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies.

    The messages, sent anonymously, were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. They generally used a similar tone but varied in wording.

    Some instructed the recipient to show up at an address at a particular time “with your belongings,” while others didn’t include a location. Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.

    It wasn’t yet clear who was behind the messages and there was no comprehensive list of where they were sent, but high school and college students were among the recipients.

    The FBI said it was in touch with the Justice Department on the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Attorney General’s office also said it was looking into the matter.

    Tasha Dunham of Lodi, California, said her 16-year-old daughter showed her one of the messages Wednesday evening before her basketball practice.

    The text not only used her daughter’s name, but it directed her to report to a “plantation” in North Carolina, where Dunham said they’ve never lived. When they looked up the address, it was the location of a museum.

    “It was very disturbing,” Dunham said. “Everybody’s just trying to figure out what does this all mean for me? So, I definitely had a lot of fear and concern.”

    Her daughter initially thought it was a prank, but emotions are high following Tuesday’s presidential election. Dunham and her family thought it could be more nefarious and reported it to local law enforcement.

    “I wasn’t in slavery. My mother wasn’t in slavery. But we’re a couple of generations away. So, when you think about how brutal and awful slavery was for our people, it’s awful and concerning,” Dunham said.

    About six middle school students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, received the messages too, said Megan Shafer, acting superintendent of the Lower Merion School District.

    “The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more so by the fact that children have been targeted,” she wrote in a letter to parents.

    Students at some major universities, including Clemson in South Carolina and the University of Alabama, said they received the messages. The Clemson Police Department said in a statement that it had been notified of the “deplorable racially motivated text and email messages” and encouraged anyone who received one to report it.

    Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a statement calling the messages that targeted some of its students “deeply unsettling.” It urged calm and assured students that the texts likely were from bots or malicious actors with “no real intentions or credibility.”

    Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel said Black students who are members of the organization’s Missouri State University chapter received texts citing Trump’s win and calling them out by name as being “selected to pick cotton” next Tuesday. Chapel said police in the southeastern Missouri city of Springfield, home of the university, have been notified.

    “It points to a well-organized and resourced group that has decided to target Americans on our home soil based on the color of our skin,” Chapel said in a statement.

    Nick Ludlum, a senior vice president for the wireless industry trade group CTIA, said: “Wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are aggressively working to block them and the numbers that they are coming from.”

    David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that they aren’t sure who is behind the messages but estimated they had been sent to more than 10 states, including most Southern states, Maryland, Oklahoma and even the District of Columbia. The district’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement that its intelligence unit was investigating the origins of the message.

    Brody said a number of civil rights laws can be applied to hate-related incidents. The leaders of several other civil rights organizations condemned the messages, including Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who said, “Hate speech has no place in the South or our nation.”

    “The threat — and the mention of slavery in 2024 — is not only deeply disturbing, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era, and now seeks to prevent Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized.”

    ____

    Associated Press reporter Summer Ballentine contributed to this report from Jefferson City, Missouri.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • Racist text messages referencing slavery raise alarms in multiple states and prompt investigations

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    Racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies.Video above: Black University of Alabama students, parents outraged after getting racist text messageThe messages, sent anonymously, were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. They generally used a similar tone but varied in wording.Some instructed the recipient to show up at an address at a particular time “with your belongings,” while others didn’t include a location. Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.It wasn’t yet clear who was behind the messages and there was no comprehensive list of where they were sent, but high school and college students were among the recipients.The FBI said it was in touch with the Justice Department on the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Attorney General’s office also said it was looking into the matter.Tasha Dunham of Lodi, California, said her 16-year-old daughter showed her one of the messages Wednesday evening before her basketball practice.The text not only used her daughter’s name, but it directed her to report to a “plantation” in North Carolina, where Dunham said they’ve never lived. When they looked up the address, it was the location of a museum.“It was very disturbing,” Dunham said. “Everybody’s just trying to figure out what does this all mean for me? So, I definitely had a lot of fear and concern.”Her daughter initially thought it was a prank, but emotions are high following Tuesday’s presidential election. Dunham and her family thought it could be more nefarious and reported it to local law enforcement.“I wasn’t in slavery. My mother wasn’t in slavery. But we’re a couple of generations away. So, when you think about how brutal and awful slavery was for our people, it’s awful and concerning,” Dunham said.About six middle school students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, received the messages too, said Megan Shafer, acting superintendent of the Lower Merion School District.“The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more so by the fact that children have been targeted,” she wrote in a letter to parents.Students at some major universities, including Clemson in South Carolina and the University of Alabama, said they received the messages. The Clemson Police Department said in a statement that it been notified of the “deplorable racially motivated text and email messages” and encouraged anyone who received one to report it.University of Alabama freshman Alyse McCall told sister station WVTMM that she was in class when she got the text, and it brought her to tears.“I can say, ‘Oh, it’s a spoof message, oh, it’s a spam message,’ but that’s truly scary,” McCall said. “These messages are going out to thousands of young African-American students who fought just as hard to get into college as everybody else did and make opportunities for themselves to thrive, and getting those messages and then walking around or not even going to class because you’re scared to walk on your own campus. It’s not fair.”Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a statement calling the messages that targeted some of its students “deeply unsettling.” It urged calm and assured students that the texts likely were from bots or malicious actors with “no real intentions or credibility.”Nick Ludlum, a senior vice president for the wireless industry trade group CTIA, said “wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are aggressively working to block them and the numbers that they are coming from.”David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that they aren’t sure who is behind the messages but estimated they had been sent to more than 10 states, including most Southern states, Maryland, Oklahoma and even the District of Columbia. The district’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement that its intelligence unit was investigating the origins of the message.Brody said a number of civil rights laws can be applied to hate-related incidents. The leaders of several other civil rights organizations condemned the messages, including Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who said, “Hate speech has no place in the South or our nation.”“The threat — and the mention of slavery in 2024 — is not only deeply disturbing, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era, and now seeks to prevent Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized.”

    Racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies.

    Video above: Black University of Alabama students, parents outraged after getting racist text message

    The messages, sent anonymously, were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. They generally used a similar tone but varied in wording.

    Some instructed the recipient to show up at an address at a particular time “with your belongings,” while others didn’t include a location. Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.

    It wasn’t yet clear who was behind the messages and there was no comprehensive list of where they were sent, but high school and college students were among the recipients.

    The FBI said it was in touch with the Justice Department on the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Attorney General’s office also said it was looking into the matter.

    Tasha Dunham of Lodi, California, said her 16-year-old daughter showed her one of the messages Wednesday evening before her basketball practice.

    The text not only used her daughter’s name, but it directed her to report to a “plantation” in North Carolina, where Dunham said they’ve never lived. When they looked up the address, it was the location of a museum.

    “It was very disturbing,” Dunham said. “Everybody’s just trying to figure out what does this all mean for me? So, I definitely had a lot of fear and concern.”

    Her daughter initially thought it was a prank, but emotions are high following Tuesday’s presidential election. Dunham and her family thought it could be more nefarious and reported it to local law enforcement.

    “I wasn’t in slavery. My mother wasn’t in slavery. But we’re a couple of generations away. So, when you think about how brutal and awful slavery was for our people, it’s awful and concerning,” Dunham said.

    About six middle school students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, received the messages too, said Megan Shafer, acting superintendent of the Lower Merion School District.

    “The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more so by the fact that children have been targeted,” she wrote in a letter to parents.

    Students at some major universities, including Clemson in South Carolina and the University of Alabama, said they received the messages. The Clemson Police Department said in a statement that it been notified of the “deplorable racially motivated text and email messages” and encouraged anyone who received one to report it.

    University of Alabama freshman Alyse McCall told sister station WVTMM that she was in class when she got the text, and it brought her to tears.

    “I can say, ‘Oh, it’s a spoof message, oh, it’s a spam message,’ but that’s truly scary,” McCall said. “These messages are going out to thousands of young African-American students who fought just as hard to get into college as everybody else did and make opportunities for themselves to thrive, and getting those messages and then walking around or not even going to class because you’re scared to walk on your own campus. It’s not fair.”

    Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a statement calling the messages that targeted some of its students “deeply unsettling.” It urged calm and assured students that the texts likely were from bots or malicious actors with “no real intentions or credibility.”

    Nick Ludlum, a senior vice president for the wireless industry trade group CTIA, said “wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are aggressively working to block them and the numbers that they are coming from.”

    David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that they aren’t sure who is behind the messages but estimated they had been sent to more than 10 states, including most Southern states, Maryland, Oklahoma and even the District of Columbia. The district’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement that its intelligence unit was investigating the origins of the message.

    Brody said a number of civil rights laws can be applied to hate-related incidents. The leaders of several other civil rights organizations condemned the messages, including Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who said, “Hate speech has no place in the South or our nation.”

    “The threat — and the mention of slavery in 2024 — is not only deeply disturbing, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era, and now seeks to prevent Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized.”

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  • Man gets 8 years in prison for shooting DC-area minor he was in a relationship with – WTOP News

    Man gets 8 years in prison for shooting DC-area minor he was in a relationship with – WTOP News

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    A man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after shooting a D.C.-area minor he was in a relationship with.

    A man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after shooting a D.C.-area minor he was in a relationship with.

    Deangelo Wooten, 27, sent text messages to the teenage girl, who is 10 years younger than he is, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

    Police said that Wooten made multiple threats before the shooting. On Jan. 20, 2024, he texted the girl “imma shoot you dead in your face,” police said.

    The victim, who was 16 years old at the time, told police that she originally thought he was just trying to get a reaction from her.

    The girl met up with Wooten in Southeast D.C. to exchange a pair of shoes. During the meetup at 13th Street and Congress Street SE, Wooten pulled out a gun and started shooting, according to the news release.

    The victim was shot in the arm and the bullet “grazed her back,” according to the release. She was treated at a hospital.

    Wooten, of no fixed address, plead guilty on July 19 and was sentenced last week.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Veronica Canales

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  • British Man Sues Apple For $6 Million After Wife Discovers Texts He Thought He Deleted

    British Man Sues Apple For $6 Million After Wife Discovers Texts He Thought He Deleted

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    Wayment! A British man wants Apple to see him in court after his iPhone allegedly failed to delete text messages he sent to sex workers.

    At this time, reports have not revealed the businessman’s legal name.

    RELATED: Bay Area Police Probe Reportedly Exposes ‘Very Disturbing’ Racist Text Messages

    Man Sues Apple For Non-Deleted Texts

    According to the Telegraph, the British man’s wife discovered the inappropriate messages, which led to their divorce. The unfaithful man claims Apple isn’t clear that deleting messages on one device doesn’t remove them from others.

    Complex reports that the middle-aged male is seeking $6 million from Apple, matching his losses from divorce and legal costs.

    While speaking to the Times, the man stated that he believes he would still be married if the messages had been permanently deleted.

    “If you are told a message is deleted, you are entitled to believe it’s deleted. My thoughts are if I had been able to talk to her rationally and she had not had such a brutal realization of it, I might still be married.”

    The British man insisted that the tech company should have told him that deleting the messages only affected the device from which they were deleted, not all devices logged into his Apple ID.

    “In my opinion it’s all because Apple told me my messages were deleted when they weren’t. If the message had said, ‘These messages are deleted on this device’, that would have been a clue, or ‘These messages are deleted on this device only’ that would have been even better,” he explained.

    Additionally, the English man disclosed to the Times that he had engaged with sex workers during the final years of his marriage.

    He reportedly used to contact the workers via iMessages on his iPhone before deleting the incriminating texts. However, when his wife accessed the family’s iMac, messages dating back several years popped up. All that time, hubby thought his texts no longer existed!

    British Man Claims To Suffer Health Issues Due To Divorce

    Metro reported that in addition to financial loss, the man also stated that the matter has dramatically affected his health. He mentioned that he was taking beta blockers to alleviate his panic attacks.

    “I genuinely thought I was going to have a heart attack. Divorce is an extraordinarily stressful process and you have children and family dynamics. In my opinion it’s all because Apple told me my messages were deleted when they weren’t.”

    The outlet also reported that the British man hired London law firm Rosenblatt for a no-win, no-fee class-action lawsuit.

    Simon Walton of Rosenblatt stated that Apple has not been transparent about what happens to messages users send, receive, and delete.

    “In many cases, the iPhone informs the user that messages have been deleted but, as we have seen, that isn’t true and is misleading because they are still found on other linked devices – something Apple doesn’t tell its users,” Walton said. 

    RELATED: Two Women Sue Apple After Their Exes Allegedly Used ‘Dangerous’ AirTags To Track Them

    What Do You Think Roomies?

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    Ashley Rushford

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