A hacker posted racist and antisemitic messages to the official social media account representing the beloved “Sesame Street” character Elmo on Sunday.
The pirated posts on the Muppet’s X account, which has almost 650,000 followers, additionally included expletive-laced commentary about President Trump and the continued combat amongst some Trump allies over paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a New York Metropolis jail in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking costs.
“Elmo’s X account was compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” a spokesperson for the Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces the long-running kids’s present, stated in an announcement Monday. “We are working to restore full control of the account.”
The inflammatory messages have been deleted, and the account has not posted for the reason that hacker’s takeover.
The account is understood for its usually uplifting posts typically signed with coronary heart emoji, so the hateful messages drew intense curiosity on-line and backlash for the unknown intruder.
The social platform X, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence firm xAI, has confronted backlash over the unfold of antisemitic rhetoric on the location.
xAI apologized to customers Saturday after its chatbot, Grok, started posting antisemitic messages following a latest “anti-woke” replace.
The White Home’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, beforehand helmed by Musk, referred to as for the Company for Public Broadcasting to be abolished and an finish to federal spending on the PBS, which was the longtime house community for “Sesame Street.” Sesame Workshop introduced a brand new partnership with streaming platform Netflix in Might.
