The E! NewsTwitter account was hacked on Saturday by a group known as the Syrian Electronic Army.
After gaining access to the account the Syrian Electronic Army posted a message in which it claimed Justin Bieber had come out of the closet. Several hundred Twitter users retweeted the Justin Bieber tweet before it was revealed to be false.
Following the Bieber tweet another message was posted about Angelina Jolie. In the second message the E! News hacked Twitter account claimed that Jolie said:
“Jordan is to blame for the Syrian refugees’ atrocious conditions.”
Following several tweets the account was suspended and E! News released the following statement:
“E! Online’s breaking news Twitter and SMS accounts were compromised today. 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.”
The Syrian Electronic Army is the same group that hacked The Associated Press account and sent out fake messages about President Obama and The White House. The hack against The Associated Press was led by other hacks against NPR, France 24 TV and the BBC, among others.
With the E! News Twitter account hacked the need for Twitter’s 2-step authentication is greater than ever.
This account @eonline was compromised and some incorrect information was sent out. We’re working with Twitter now to fix this.
— E! Online (@eonline) May 4, 2013
I have never understood the point of hacking accounts like this.