Posted on 07/04/2011 2:53:54 AM PDT by markomalley
Rogue 4 July tweets on TV news channel's politics service go viral but Fox News is apparently back in control
Fox News has apparently fallen victim to hacking, with its politics Twitter feed repeatedly announcing President Barack Obama had been shot dead.
@foxnewspolitics began tweeting the information to its 33,000 followers at about 2am local time, with the posts rapidly being shared around the internet.
The rogue tweets appeared to begin after the account sent a message saying Fox had just "regained full access to our Twitter account".
The following tweets all related to the supposed death of Obama, with some posts being very specific about the president's injuries.
"@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead," came the first tweet. The string of messages continued:
"@BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out", and then: "@BarackObama shot twice at a Ross' restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. RIP Obama, best regards to the Obama family."
Whatever the hoaxer's identity, they do not appear to have been entirely web-savvy. The first three posts revealing the president's death were directed to the @BarackObama Twitter feed, meaning only those following both accounts would have seen the messages.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Here are the tweets in question (still haven't been pulled) (image reduced. Click on the image to see it full size):
And this will become fodder for tomorrow’s declaration that tea party conservatives especially are violent and racist...
In any event, a whole lot of people got woken up early this day, and probably won’t get back to bed until tomorrow night. Hope that hacker was dumb enough to not cover their trail and is nailed quickly.
How does this happen? With all the supposed security, how do hackers get control of accounts on Twitter and elsewhere?
Amatuers. Incompetence of this level means Fox News doesn’t deserve to exist.
Good grief! What is this hacker trying to do, start a national incident?
And the hacked messages are still online on Twitter!
That, to me, is the most bizzare detail.
This could be taken as a threat to the President.
I imagine it will be scrutenized pretty closely.
Astronomically stupid thing to do.
Yes, I thought when I first saw this thread, I thought I was going to spit my first morning cup of coffee.
Have the riots started yet
You got that right, this will be viewed as a threat to the President. With this country badly divided as it is, this is the LAST THING the conservatives NEED right now.
Seal falling off of podium, seal flying off the beastmobile, beastmobile running aground at embassy in Ireland, rats, flies, storms, volcanoes, and now twitter chatter about Obama falling...
The usurper sure is an omen generator.
Why in the world would Tea Partyers get the blame for this??
I tgought Twitter accounts couldn’t be hacked?? Weiner said his was and evryone said it was impossible.
Surprised. That could get Twitter into trouble as well as FoxNews.
You can be sure Baraq Sheik Obomba and his posse orchestrated this. They want to shut down opposition news outlets once and for all, just like Hitler and Stalin did.
I’m not familiar with Twitter, how could it be hacked?
Someone inside? This could have repercussions.
Well, Fox is FULL of LIBERALS!!!
Obviously there is need for more controls! /s
The staff at Foxnews is asleep at the wheel, it’s called being slack!
No, I think people said HIS wasn’t hacked- that the facts didn’t add up to a hack in Weiner’s case, not that it was not possible in general.
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