The Twitter accounts of both the New York Post and United Press International were apparently hacked Friday and sent out a series of tweets claiming U.S. and Chinese naval forces were engaged in combat.
A tweet sent from the UPI account around 1 p.m. EST reported that “Chinese anti-ship missile fired at USS George Washington.” Over 400 users re-tweeted the post.
The false tweets continued to report on escalated activity.
“US Joint Chief of staff: USS George Washington damaged, US navy now engaged in active combat against Chinese vessels in South China sea,” another UPI tweet read.
The false reports on chaos between the U.S. and Chinese navies continued, but the number of re-tweets fell as more users realized it was a hoax.
One tweet showed a photo of Pope Francis with the caption “POPE: ’WW III has begun’”
“What is going on, was their password UPI1234?” one user responded to the post.
The Post erased the untrue posts from its page and tweeted from a separate verified account that it had been hacked after someone sent out a similar series of false tweets on military and macroeconomic topics.
The hack follows last week’s defacement of the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube account by a group of Islamic State Sympathizers calling themselves the “Cyber Caliphate.”
In March, the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers supporting the Assad regime, hacked The Associated Press’ Twitter account and falsely reported that the White House had been bombed. The tweet caused the Dow Jones to suddenly drop by roughly 140 points.
According to CNBC, markets did not move based on the tweets sent Friday.
It is unclear who is responsible for the latest hacks.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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