The New York Post has fired an employee who apparently went rogue on Thursday, posting a number of obscene and violent headlines both to the outlet’s main website and its official Twitter account.
Initial reports suggested that the Post website’s back end was hacked — and because new headlines were set up to auto-populate tweets, the altered headlines quickly circulated on Twitter as well.
GOP digital strategist Alec Sears suggested that whether or not it was a hack, it should serve as a warning to sites that automated social media posts. “Looks like someone got access to the New York Post website backend and is changing headlines and then republishing stories on social media automatically,” he said. “Whether this was a disgruntled employee or a hack, this is a perfect example of why News Outlets (and other orgs) should not automate their social media posts.”
Whether this was a disgruntled employee or a hack, this is a perfect example of why News Outlets (and other orgs) should not automate their social media posts
— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) October 27, 2022
The altered headlines ranged from racist to violent — one made racist comments about New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and another suggested that New York gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin (R) would “rape” incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul (D) — and still another claimed that Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro had called for Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s assassination “for America.”
#BREAKING: The @NYPost's website and Twitter account are being hacked. pic.twitter.com/8fPSymuNI6
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 27, 2022
The Post’s official account acknowledged what they believed at the time to be a hack, saying that they were investigating the cause.
The New York Post has been hacked. We are currently investigating the cause.
— New York Post (@nypost) October 27, 2022
Hochul’s campaign fired off a statement a short time later, saying, “The New York Post has long fostered an ugly, toxic conversation on their front pages and social accounts, but these posts and more disgusting and vile than usual. The New York Post needs to immediately explained how this reprehensible content was made public. While the Post has made its preference clear in the New York Governor’s race, there is no room for this violent, sexist rhetoric in our politics. We demand answers.”
Our response to the NY Post this AM: pic.twitter.com/ALvvON79Je
— Jen Goodman (@jengoodman75) October 27, 2022
“It was clear within minutes of the posts that the NY Post had been hacked. Did they miss this? or are they ignoring it, hoping simply to will a narrative into existence?” T. Becket Adams pushed back on Hochul’s statement.
The Post quickly regained control of the site, deleting the offending headlines and tweets — and a spokesperson for the outlet provided an official statement, claiming that the person responsible for Thursday morning’s debacle had been caught and terminated.
“The New York Post’s investigation indicates that the unauthorized conduct was committed by an employee, and the employee has been terminated. This morning, we immediately removed the vile and reprehensible content from our website and social media accounts,” the statement read.