Twitter suspended a WIRED senior reporter on Wednesday after he allegedly used the social media platform to solicit stolen information belonging to Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, whose account was hacked the day before.
Walsh’s account appeared compromised Tuesday night after an anonymous hacker posted a series of out-of-character tweets on the conservative commentator and documentary filmmaker’s feed.
Less than 24 hours later, Dell Cameron, a senior reporter with WIRED, published a story interviewing the alleged hacker, who claims to have compromised Walsh’s account “to stir up controversy and sow chaos on Twitter” without causing any harm.
“Spoke with the hacker who says he compromised Matt Walsh’s account, and who was able to supply some convincing proof they’d gained access to his personal email account,” Cameron wrote on Twitter before the platform suspended his account.
Dell Cameron, a leftist senior reporter for WIRED, used Twitter to solicit stolen information belonging to @MattWalshBlog, who was hacked last night. pic.twitter.com/wsaOWRmPnc
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 19, 2023
According to Cameron, a hacker under the alias “Doomed” told the reporter that they hacked Walsh’s account to “make funny tweets,” as the Daily Wire host likes to “‘trigger’ people.”
Those “silly words” made up several tweets that used defamatory language against fellow conservative media figures, including colleague and Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro, podcast host Joe Rogan, and former British kickboxer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate. Doomed also pinned a tweet on Walsh’s profile with a racial slur.
“We caused no financial harm, threatened anyone, [nor] ruined anything,” Doomed said, adding it was “a few silly words on social media.”
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In the article, WIRED also alleged the hacker provided screenshots of Walsh’s private information and email accounts, including his W2 tax form, direct messages on Twitter with Shapiro from 2017, and emails with conservative commentator Steven Crowder from 2014.
“I noticed he panicked and removed his iCloud and stuff,” Doomed said. “I literally only wanted his Twitter account to make stupid tweets. And it worked, both sides are arguing over it.”
After going live with the story, Cameron posed on Twitter-alternative Mastodon, saying that he “just got permanently suspended for publishing this story” with a link to the article. A separate post from the WIRED report showed that Twitter suspended him for violating the platform’s policy, which prohibits “the distribution of hacked materials.”
Walsh returned to his Twitter account on Wednesday after regaining access to his feed.
The Daily Wire host first sarcastically asked if he missed “anything important” after being away for the last couple of days, followed by a short thread adding getting hacked to the list of backlash he and his family have received in the previous year.
“Over the last year my family has been harassed, threatened, doxxed, and now we can add hacked to the list,” Walsh said. “Apparently the hacker had an ‘insider’ who gave him access to my phone. A lot we still don’t know. But we’re finding out. And there will be consequences.”
“I have also made note of the members of the media who openly solicited stolen information from my phone,” Walsh added. “There will be consequences there too. Fortunately we can afford very good lawyers.”
I have also made note of the members of the media who openly solicited stolen information from my phone. There will be consequences there too. Fortunately we can afford very good lawyers.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 19, 2023