After its Twitter account spewed links to fake, inflammatory, and racist stories on Thursday morning, The New York Post let readers know it had been hacked.
“We Must Assassinate AOC for America,” read one headline, linking to what appeared to be an article featuring a picture of the progressive politician. Another hed read: “Zeldin: Eric Adams Is NYC’s Fried Chicken Eating Monkey,” in reference to Lee Zeldin, the GOP candidate for New York governor, and Adams, New York City’s mayor, who is Black. Still another crudely referenced Zeldin sexually assaulting current governor Kathy Hochul.
Additional fake headlines took aim at a number of conservative figures, including:
- “Gov. Abbott [as in the ultra-conservative governor of Texas]: I Will Start Ordering Border Patrol to Start Slaughtering Illegals”
- “Rufo: We Must Destroy and Imprison Union Teachers,” in reference to Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist.
- “Devine: We Must Murder Joe and Hunter Biden” — in reference to the Post’s own Miranda Devine, who writes a column for The Post.
While The Post is known for its conservative leanings and outlandish headlines, it’s pretty obvious these are fabricated. The tweets were subsequently taken down and around 9 a.m. EST the paper put out a statement revealing that it had been targeted by a bad actor: “The New York Post has been hacked. We are currently investigating the cause.”
The New York Post has been hacked. We are currently investigating the cause.
— New York Post (@nypost) October 27, 2022
It’s not at all clear what has happened here. From the Post’s statement, we don’t know whether the company itself was hacked or whether it was merely its social account that was compromised. Actually, the company may not have been hacked at all: CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted late Thursday morning that a “source familiar with the matter” had told him that the incident “was due to the actions of a rogue employee.” Disgruntled intern? A journo having a bad day?
It’s the second media company to send offensive alerts in recent months. In September, Fast Company was the victim of a hack that saw its Apple News account send out racist push alerts. The media outlet’s leaders shut down the site entirely as they investigated, reviving it several days later.
Gizmodo reached out to the Post for comment and additional details and will update this story if they respond.
UPDATE: In a statement provided to Gizmodo, The Post revealed that Thursday’s incident was the result of “unauthorised conduct” by an employee. The employee has now been fired, the paper said. The full statement reads: “The New York Post’s investigation indicates that the unauthorised conduct was committed by an employee, and the employee has been terminated. This morning, we immediately removed the vile and reprehensible content from our website and social media accounts.”