The attack, which happened this morning, saw several tweets from @FoxNewsPolitics splash news of the president’s death following a shootout at a restaurant in Iowa. The first tweet, posted at 7.14am, read: “@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead.”
Further tweets divulged grizzly information on Obama’s fake death, and urged readers to retweet the hashtag #ObamaDead, adding: “it’s a sad 4th of July. RT to support the late president’s family, and RIP. The shooter will be found.” The hack is reportedly the work of a group called ‘The Script Kiddies’, who ended the torrent of false news with: “We wish @joebiden the best of luck as our new President of the United States. In such a time of madness, there’s light at the end of tunnel.”
At the time of writing, the tweets had not yet been removed, which suggests that the feed is still under TSK. Fox has responded by saying that it “will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts.”
Has the hacking gone too far? Let us know on the Gadget Helpline Twitter Feed.