Online Shock Spreads Over Massive Hack of Political, Corporate, and Celebrity Accounts: ‘BREAKING: Twitter’
Photo credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images.
Shock, mockery, and a little relief: how the very online on Twitter reacted to the massive hack of, well, Twitter.
After an ominous, slow-rolling hack touting a likely Bitcoin scam hit some of the biggest political, corporate, and celebrity names on Twitter, people couldn’t help but turn to the compromised site to sound off on the moment. And the irony was spread thick and wide.
BREAKING: Twitter
— Matt Viser (@mviser) July 15, 2020
staying on Twitter through all this feels a bit like going out on the porch to watch the tornado
— Matt Pearce ? (@mattdpearce) July 15, 2020
wow what if twitter had to shut down for some period of time pic.twitter.com/9IO3Tti9ZV
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 15, 2020
Have they tried turning Twitter off and back on again?
Pro-tip: Just don’t forget to keep the Velociraptor fences electrified.#hacked
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) July 15, 2020
My god you have the power to hack anybody’s Twitter account and this is what you choose to do with it?
— Goldy ☂️ (@GoldyHA) July 15, 2020
maybe it’s finally time for *three* factor authentication
— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) July 15, 2020
Twitter should probably just pull the power cord right now
— The Verge (@verge) July 15, 2020
But not everybody saw the humor in the moment, after both former President Barack Obama and current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden were hacked — and wondering if this was a foreign, cyber attack.
The Democratic nominee for President of the United States had his Twitter account hacked.
This is not a joke. Regardless of party or politics, we all should be concerned.
— Charles Booker (@Booker4KY) July 15, 2020
I’m surprised Twitter has not been able to shut this off, which is pretty scary its still going. And I wonder now, how deep have hackers got in? Uh, what if this happened on election day, but strategically? What about private DM’s, wonder if they are vulnerable?
— Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) July 15, 2020
I realize that you don’t need foreign cyber capabilities to hack a Twitter account but the speed in which this has been done and the number of accounts makes me wonder if there is a foreign actor involved.
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) July 15, 2020
It’s definitely reassuring, at this moment, to think how much of the current administration functions through the president’s Twitter feed.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 15, 2020
Still, some accounts found a way to see the silver lining:
If I were Kanye, I’d say my Twitter has been hacked for since 2007.
— Daniel Kibblesmith (@kibblesmith) July 15, 2020
We are giving back to the Twitter community.
All Tweets sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you tweet under this tweet we’ll tweet back twice. Only doing this for 30 minutes.
Dave444spicy245nuggets10piece
— Wendy’s (@Wendys) July 15, 2020
In the brief interregnum when Twitter suspended the ability of verified accounts to post — presumably, as it tried to lock out the hackers — unverified users took full advantage of their newfound power and bragged about how the tables had turned.
As the prophecy foretold, the Unverifieds will rise up and topple the Twitterverse.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) July 15, 2020
Blue checks right now like: pic.twitter.com/r1QxheylrR
— Liam (@WakeInShite) July 15, 2020
— David Dayen (@ddayen) July 15, 2020
Unverified Twitter right now. pic.twitter.com/I7jHvf9Sjf
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) July 15, 2020
Verified followers, RT this is if you can only communicate through RTs
— every cop contribution is a policy failure (@aaronnarraph) July 15, 2020
Terminator X: The Rise of The Unverified
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) July 15, 2020
verified accounts blocked from tweeting. nature is healing.
— n (@auntanxiety) July 15, 2020
