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Hijacked Fox News Twitter Account Falsely Claims Obama Shot Dead

Posted by timothy on from the how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people dept.

Frankie70 writes with word of a Twitter-account hijacking that's raised eyebrows today, supplying a link to the account in question. From the Telegraph's account: "'The Twitter account of the American Fox News Politics team was compromised and used to falsely announce the death of the U.S. president. Hackers, who identified themselves as 'The Script Kiddies' and said they shared the spirit of prominent hacking group Anonymous, used the account to write: 'BREAKING NEWS: President @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much. It's a sad 4th for #america. #obamadead RIP.'"

8 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. HOW? by sortius_nod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is your corporate account. How does this happen?

    1. Re:HOW? by waddgodd · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is your corporate account. How does this happen?

      I suggest it didn't. They just had to really quickly gin up a "hacker group" to cover their sick joke

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
    2. Re:HOW? by ricky-road-flats · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is your corporate account. How does this happen?

      I suggest it didn't. They just had to really quickly gin up a "hacker group" to cover their sick joke

      It's sad, but what you said rings more true than anything that so-called news organisation comes out with....

    3. Re:HOW? by ricky-road-flats · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Take a breath, man, Jesus.

      I am not an american, I don't support either of your two parties. I made no comment on Obama, or any of the other news outlets. None are perfect, and I didn't say any were. However, in my eyes, what thankfully little I see of Fox News is the worst example of biased shrill fearmongering bullshit which twists facts, ignores common sense, and generates maximum anger, fear and hate - and leads to rants like yours, which so beautifully illustrates the problems that are making the US political system so badly uncompromising, reactive and broken.

      Whether you agree with Fox's agenda (and you cannot realistically deny they have one) or not, the fact is they fucked up on a matter of IT security here, and it takes down a peg or two, and I think that's a good thing, are enjoying it. I could hope that they might start to take themselves a little less seriously, but it's a little to much to ask.

  2. Why aren't they deleted yet? by bigjarom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't understand why these tweets have not yet been deleted 6-7 hours after they were posted. Does Fox News not know you can delete tweets?

    1. Re:Why aren't they deleted yet? by forand · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They actually replaced an old tweet saying they had regained control of the account. Fox has also addressed the issue in mass media outlets Why haven't they addressed it on their account? Who knows.

  3. Wrong Forum by Bob9113 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think you are posting on the wrong forum. This site, through the surprisingly effective moderation system, leans heavily toward rational analysis when compared to most.

    While there is a significant bias in favor of a fairly strict interpretation of the Bill of Rights (though at times the second gets shorter shrift than I might prefer) on this site, that is a bias that would serve my nation (and, I believe, most nations) quite well. And it may be that the offenses to the first and fourth have been most heavily observed to come from the side of the aisle you seem to prefer (at least until Obama took that ball and ran with it). But your post seems targeted at forums which play host to leftists. Certainly the amount of rational disdain that this forum focuses on the left-oriented oligarchs in the health care, law, and copyright industries should be more than adequate evidence of the lack of partisan line-toe-ing here.

    Save your implications of dupery for people who do not engage in critical thinking. Your attempt to induce stigma-based inhibition to identifying and publishing cases of media bias and politicians who generate more heat than light are neither warranted nor productive in this place.

    If you must pander to one side, do it by pointing out factual errors or examples of emotionalism on the side you do not like. Engage in creative destruction by rational deconstruction; leave your emotionalist inhibition mongering at home.

    --
    Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
  4. Re:ironically it's not far from the truth... by jkauzlar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    putting it in a bank, or investing it, which is used to fund loans to other businesses or individuals, which generates jobs or allows people to get mortgages.

    Rich people are not evil, but the free market is not perfect. Take a look at How Markets Fail. We've seen over the past ten years (or actually since 1980) that as the wealthy accumulate a greater and greater share of the wealth, average wages and employment figures do not improve. Also, there's no requirement that they invest or loan the money in the U.S. Whenever we given money to an investor, a lot of that money will end up overseas.