Elmo, the famously cheerful red puppet from Sesame Street, was at the center of a disturbing online incident Sunday when his official social media account was taken over by an unknown hacker. The breach led to a wave of vile and antisemitic messages, far removed from the character’s usual family-friendly image.
The now-deleted posts shocked users as Elmo’s account, typically associated with educational and positive messaging, suddenly began spewing hate speech and wild conspiracy theories. Among the offensive content was a post that read: “Elmo says ALL JEWS SHOULD DIE. [profanity] JEWS. DONALD TRUMP IS NETANYAHU’S PUPPET BECAUSE HE IS IN EPSTEIN FILES. JEWS CONTROL THE WORLD AND NEED TO BE EXTERMINATED.”
Another post said: “RELEASE THE FILES [Donald Trump] CHILD [profanity] ,” while a separate message simply read: “Kill all Jews.”
Although the disturbing content was quickly removed, no official comment has yet been issued from the account’s handlers or from Sesame Workshop, which owns the Elmo character.
This incident is not without precedent. In the past, major brand accounts have also been hijacked to spread hateful rhetoric. Last year, Ford Motor Company’s official account on X (formerly Twitter) posted a series of anti-Israel messages that appeared out of character for the company.
While Ford didn’t confirm the exact origin of the posts, the automaker told FOX Business that its account had been compromised. “Our X account was briefly compromised and the previous three posts were not authorized or posted by Ford. We are investigating the issue,” the company said at the time.
{Matzav.com}