NBC News Twitter Hacked, False Terrorism Reports Posted

Posted on September 10, 2011

The NBC News Twitter account, @NBCNews, was hacked yesterday and a series of shocking false tweets about terrorist attacks at Ground Zero in New York were shared. NBC issued the following statement.

The NBC News twitter account was hacked late this afternoon and as a result, false reports of a plane attack on ground zero were sent to @NBCNews followers. We are working with Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act.

A group called The Script Kiddies claimed responsibility. It was a very irresponsible prank. MSNBC says NBC has contacted the New York police and the FBI about the hack.

The Washington Post has some images of the fake tweets here. The good news from the incident is that many in the Twitter community realized the tweets were fake and started spreading the word.

The account was suspended and the tweet were deleted. The NBC News Twitter has since returned to its normal news reporting.