Hacked Twitter Accounts Post Swastikas and Pro-Erdogan Content

As Dutch voters went to the polls yesterday, a swath of high-profile Twitter accounts have been hacked, with the attackers posting content supporting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his feud with Germany and the Netherlands, according to Bloomberg.

Turkish-language hashtags reading “NaziGermany“ and “NaziHolland“ appeared on the verified Twitter accounts of German newspaper Die Welt, Forbes Magazine, BBC North America, and Reuters Japan. Also targeted were the Twitter accounts of the European Parliament, French politicians like Alain Juppé, and Sprint’s CEO and President Marcelo Claure, among others.

“We are aware of an issue affecting a number of account holders this morning,“ said Twitter spokeswoman Kaori Saito. “We quickly located the source which was limited to a third party app. We removed its permissions immediately. No additional accounts are impacted.“

An Amsterdam-based startup said it’s investigating if it’s the source of the postings. Twitter Counter, a marketing tool that allows people and companies to track their popularity on Twitter, said it’s now blocking people from postings through its system while it studies the issue. The company says it has more than 2 million users and tracks more than 350 million Twitter accounts. “Our app has been used. It’s pending further investigation,“ said Twitter Counter CEO Omer Ginor. “We are aware of the situation and have started an investigation into the matter.“

The attack comes just a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government increased the pressure on social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, to curb the spread of fake news and malicious posts, weighing fines of up to 50 million euros for companies that fail to delete illegal content in a timely manner. Her government is taking malicious posts on social media increasingly seriously ahead of the Sept. 24 election in Europe’s biggest economy.