A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army, the same group blamed for hijacking The Associated Press’ Twitter account last month, has claimed responsibility for hacking E! Online’s account Saturday, tweeting the hoax that Justin Bieber is gay.
“Exclusive: Justin Bieber to E!online: I’m a gay,” the E! Online account announced — prompting 1,200 retweets and 351 favorites, the New York Daily News reports.
“Eonline’s breaking news twitter and sms accounts were compromised today,” the organization said in a statement. “We’re working to have this resolved as quickly as possible and are fully investigating the incident. We apologize for any confusion that the erroneous news alerts may have caused.”
E! Online’s last tweet was posted Saturday night, reading: “This account @eonline was compromised and some incorrect information was sent out. We’re working with Twitter now to fix this.”
The SEA supports Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, the Wall Street Journal reports. Its other hacking targets include Twitter accounts for “60 Minutes,” the BBC, NPR and Reuters, the Daily News reports.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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