Twitter CEO account hacked, offensive tweets posted
San Francisco, Aug 31: Twitter said Friday the account of chief executive Jack Dorsey had been "compromised" after a series of erratic and offensive messages were posted.
The tweets containing racial slurs and suggestions about a bomb showed up around 2000 GMT on the @jack account of the founder of the short messaging service before being deleted.
Some of the tweets contained the hashtag #ChucklingSquad which was believed to indicate the identity of the hacker group.
The messages contained racial epithets, and included a retweet of a message supporting Nazi Germany.
"We're aware that @jack was compromised and investigating what happened," a Twitter spokesperson said.
A barrage of comments fired off on the platform questioned why the Twitter co-founder didn't secure his account with two-factor authentication, and how disturbing a sign it was that the service wasn't to keep its own chief safe on the platform.
"If you can't protect Jack, you can't protect... jack," one Twitter user quipped.
The news comes with Dorsey and Twitter moving aggressively to clean up offensive and inappropriate content as part of a focus on "safety." "This might be the only way to get rid of racist tweets on this platform," a Twitter user commented.
Twitter recently announced they would meet with Manchester United representatives regarding calls for more to be done in preventing racist abuse of footballers on social media platforms.
British-based security consultant Graham Cluley said the incident highlighted the importance of two-factor authentication, where a user must confirm the account via an external service.
"Everyone should ensure they have 2FA enabled, use unique password, and double check what apps they've linked to their accounts," Cluley tweeted.
"Hard to say at moment how he was compromised, but one of those reasons most likely."
Cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont said the account appeared to have been hijacked "via a third party called Cloudhopper, which Twitter acquired about 10 years ago and had access to his account." Cloudhopper enables users to send tweets on their phones via SMS.
The incident raised fresh concerns about how social media users -- even prominent ones -- can have their accounts compromised and used for misinformation, a point highlighted by Canadian member of parliament Michelle Rempel Garner.
"Between bots, trolls and abuse, I've been skeptical about @Twitter as a viable platform for some time now," Rempel Garner wrote.
"But the fact it took the platform's owner (@jack) about 30 min to get his hacked account under control is deeply problematic, and makes me worry as an elected official."
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Misuse of power, money to control election mechanism seen during Maharashtra polls: Sharad Pawar
Pune (PTI): NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed the misuse of power and money to control the entire election mechanism, which was never before seen in any state assembly or national polls, was witnessed in Maharashtra.
Pawar made the statement when he visited senior activist Dr Baba Adhav, who is protesting against the alleged "misuse of EVMs" in the recent state polls in Maharashtra.
Adhav, who is in his 90s, began his three-day protest at Phule Wada, the residence of social reformer Jyotiba Phule, in the city on Thursday.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies, the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), have been alleging manipulation of EVMs in the recently held Maharashtra Assembly elections, which saw a landslide victory by the Mahayuti.
The Mahayuti, comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP, won 230 out of 288 assembly seats in the November 20 polls, while the MVA managed just 46 seats.Talking to reporters, Pawar said elections were conducted recently in the country, and there is a restlessness among the people about these.
Baba Adhav's agitation represents this restlessness, he said.
He said, "There is a murmur among the people that the recent polls in Maharashtra saw 'misuse of power' and 'floods of money', which was never seen in the past. Such things are heard of in local-level polls, but taking over the entire election mechanism with the help of money and misuse of power was not seen before. However, we witnessed it in Maharashtra, and people are restless now."
He added that people were recalling late socialist ideologue Jaiprakash Narayan and felt somebody should take a step forward.
"I heard Baba Adhav has taken a lead into this issue and is agitating at Phule Wada. His protest gives hope to the people, but it is not enough. A mass revolt is necessary, as the danger of the parliamentary democracy getting destroyed looms," Pawar said.
The former Union minister said those who have reins of the country in their hands are least bothered about this.
"Despite widespread discussion over it (alleged misuse of EVMs) in the country, whenever the opposition tries to raise the issue in the Parliament, they are not allowed to speak. Opposition leaders have been seeking an opportunity to speak on these issues for six days, but their demands have not been accepted even once. It shows they want to attack parliamentary democracy," he claimed.
He said Dr Adhav's protest is a fine example of someone revolting against the issue and expressed confidence that his protest will create a ripple effect.
