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The Onion has been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, a cabal of computer hackers sympathetic to President Bashar al-Assad.
The satirical news organization’s Twitter feed featured multiple pro-Syria tweets on Monday, several of which targeted Israel for carrying out a series of air strikes during the weekend along the wartorn country’s northern border.
“Israel denies forging new alliance with Al Qaeda: ‘We were friends all along, so it can’t be new’ – IDF Spokesperson,” reads one tweet. Another reads: “UN’s [Secretary General] Ban Ki Moon condemns Syria for being struck by Israel: ‘It was in the way of Jewish missiles.'”
Click here to see a screengrab of the hacked account.
A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army took responsibility for the hack — the same cyber-warfare group who last week hijacked the Associated Press’ main Twitter account and tweeted that President Barack Obama had been injured in an explosion. The tweet caused $130 billion in losses on the stock market before the AP could retract the story.
The SEA also recently hacked E! Online’s Twitter account, while 60 Minutes and 48 Hours also saw their Twitter feeds hacked in the past month.
The SEA sprung up in 2011 and is widely believed to be backed by the Syrian government. Rebel activists claim the SEA is funded by Rami Makhlouf, a billionaire cousin of Assad.
The hack comes just months after The Onion issued an apology for legitimately tweeting an offensive joke about young actress Quvenzhane Wallis during the Oscars ceremony.
UPDATE: The Onion responds to the hack with a new satirical story, “Onion Twitter Password Changed to OnionMan77.” They followed that with a second, far darker retort: “Syrian Electronic Army Has A Little Fun Before Inevitable Upcoming Deaths At Hands Of Rebels.”
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