The New York Post’s website and Twitter account were infiltrated by hackers Thursday morning, posting at least half a dozen racist and misogynist extremist headlines under the paper’s red banner.
Among the politicians targeted was the President of the United States. President Joe Biden.
The headlines had pictures in them, but the links didn’t go to articles. In addition to violent and sexual headlines directed at Biden, his son Hunter, and Ocasio-Cortez, there were also headlines that were racist at New York Mayor Eric Adams and posts that targeted teachers who are unionized.
A New York Post spokesperson confirmed in an email to CNBC that the posts resulted from a hack.
“We’ve taken down the vile and reprehensible content posted by the hackers and continue to investigate the cause,” the spokesperson said, providing no further comment on the matter.
The hackers linked the phoney Post articles about Zeldin making racist remarks about Mayor Adams and the insane opinion post advocating for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s assassination after breaking into the Post’s Twitter account.
Soon after, the posts were deleted, and by mid-morning, business as usual had returned to the website of the New York tabloid newspaper. On Twitter, The Post has 2.8 million followers.
Requests for comment from the president’s, Ocasio- Cortez’s, and Adams’s representatives were not immediately fulfilled. The New York Post’s publishing platform WordPress didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment either.
New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin and incumbent Kathy Hochul were also mentioned in explicit headlines as part of the hack. In response, Jerrel Harvey, a spokeswoman for Gov. Hochul’s campaign, urged an urgent explanation of “how this disgusting stuff was made public.”
“The New York Post has long fostered an ugly, toxic conversation on their front pages and social accounts, but these posts are more disgusting and vile than usual,” a Hochul representative said Thursday. “The New York Post needs to immediately explain how this reprehensible content was made public. While the Post has made its preferences very clear in the New York Governor’s race, there is no room for this violent, sexist rhetoric in our politics. We demand answers.”
A representative for Zeldin didn’t immediately respond to comment.
Read also: Hackers have stolen $1.97bn worth of crypto from January to June 2022
Are hacks on US media outlets recurring?
This is the second recent hack of an American media outlet. After hackers got access to Fast Company’s website in late September and delivered “obscene and racist” push alerts to Apple News subscribers, Fast Company had to take down its website for almost a week.
Fast Company stated on Twitter at the time that a breach had affected its Apple News notifications and its content management system. The business, which also employs WordPress, instantly shut down its website.
Later, it claimed to have hired a major crisis response and cybersecurity company to look into the situation.
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