A hacker made a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) from Donald Trump Jr.’s account on Wednesday, falsely claiming that his father, former President Donald Trump, had passed away.
What Happened: An unknown individual hacked into Donald Trump Jr.’s account and posted a series of false messages about his father’s death. The hacker also used a racial slur against President Joe Biden.
The posts were up for less than an hour before they were removed from Trump Jr’s account, which has over 10 million followers.
The Trump Organization confirmed the account was indeed hacked, The BBC reported. One of the deceptive posts read, “I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024.”
See Also: Donald Trump Says Joe Biden Is Not Too Old To Be President
Other posts contained strange claims about North Korea and mentioned individuals such as convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, cryptocurrency influencer Richard Heart, and YouTuber Logan Paul.
Andrew Surabian, a spokesman for Trump Jr, confirmed the account had been hacked and dismissed the posts as “obviously not true”.
Why It Matters: The incident has sparked concerns about X’s ability to safeguard user accounts, especially those of prominent political figures, as the platform gets ready for the 2024 presidential elections. Last month, the Elon Musk-owned platform announced plans to bolster its security and election teams after significant layoffs last year, which, according to the billionaire owner, resulted in a reduction of over 80% of the company’s workforce.
X also remains under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission regarding its capacity to adequately safeguard user privacy and whether it potentially breached the binding commitments it had made in 2011 to enhance platform security. This investigation was initiated following a whistleblower disclosure by the company’s former security chief, Peiter "Mudge" Zatko.
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