WARNING: Vulgar, racist, and anti-Semitic language ahead
It is not a great sign when your account on the website you created and are supposed to be in charge of can get hacked. On Friday afternoon, a group of hackers known as the "Chuckling Hella" gang seemingly was able to post a litany of vulgar, anti-Semitic, and racist language on Jack Dorsey's official account.
At 3:44 pm ET, Jack's account, with handle @jack, tweeted, "Shoutout Debug, Corey, NuBLoM, Joe, Owen, & Aqua #ChucklingHella."
In a series of twenty or so tweets, the hackers then posted the N-word, comments about Hitler and Nazi Germany, and other odd messages. They even threatened to blow up Twitter HQ, though it is unclear how serious this threat was.
Twitter users, of course, responded as they typically do -- a mix of sarcasm and jokes while being questionably concerned.
This is what you call a hi-jack-ing ??? https://t.co/dOCx7YvmRY
— Jeff Cimmino (@jeffcimmino) August 30, 2019
Tweeting a bomb threat from the hacked account of the CEO of Twitter is like an express lane to prison.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 30, 2019
Just imagine the head of Twitter's security team right now, on seven different kinds of mushrooms, nude, in a giant bamboo steampunk rocketship called the Love Temple, ignoring his push notifications
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) August 30, 2019
Who gave Joe Walsh @Jack's twitter password?
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 30, 2019
Hey @TwitterSupport, I know it's a lazy Friday afternoon... but you might want to crack down @Jack's hacked account.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) August 30, 2019
Imagine getting hacked on the website you created pic.twitter.com/K0DhpvZIy4
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) August 30, 2019
It is still unclear how these individuals got access to Jack's account, nor if they still have control to his Twitter. Some of the tweets have been deleted, but most are still up. While these tweets were clearly juvenile, there will likely be many questions as to how this happened and whether or not there is any actual security on the social media website.
It appears Twitter's engineers are on the case:
We're aware that @jack was compromised and investigating what happened.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) August 30, 2019