E! News Twitter Account Hacked, Official Statement Released
The E! News Twitter account was hacked this weekend by a group known as the Syrian Electronic Army. The news outlet has since issued a statement on the matter.
The group took control of the account on Saturday. Their first order of business was to tweet that Justin Bieber had come out as gay. This post was retweeted by E! News followers several hundred times before it was revealed that the account had been compromised.
A tweet about Angelina Jolie’s fake statement that “Jordan is to blame for the Syrian refugees’ atrocious conditions” was also sent out on the E! News account shortly after it was hacked. This post was also passed around the social media site before the account was suspended.
The folks working behind-the-scenes at E! News quickly announced that the account had been hacked. Although it remained suspended for most of the day on Saturday, it would appear that it has since returned.
The company released the following statement about the incident:
“E! Online’s breaking news Twitter and SMS accounts were compromised today. We’re working to have this resolved as quickly as possible and are fully investigating the incident. We apologize for any confusion that the erroneous news alerts may have caused.”
The Syrian Electronic Army, which reportedly has ties to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was also responsible for hacking the Associated Press Twitter account not too long ago. The group sent out a tweet which stated that the White House had been hit by a series of explosions. The fake news had a temporary impact on the financial markets.
This account @eonline was compromised and some incorrect information was sent out. We’re working with Twitter now to fix this.
— E! Online (@eonline) May 4, 2013
The group is also responsible for hacking BBC, NPR, France 24 TV, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The recent hacks have prompted Twitter users to push the company to roll out their two-step verification process.
What do you think about E! News online getting hacked?
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