Washington (AFP) – The X account of Sesame Street’s Elmo, a beloved children’s TV character, shared antisemitic and anti-Donald Trump posts after being hacked on Sunday. A slew of messages calling for the extermination of Jewish people and labeling the US president a “puppet” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were shared on the account. Around 650,000 users follow Elmo, the fuzzy red monster who teaches his young audience about kindness and patience.
An archived version of the X account showed several messages were published on Sunday afternoon. They were later removed, although a link to a Telegram page apparently associated with the hack remained in the account’s bio section. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, said that an unidentified hacker was behind the posts. “Elmo’s X account was briefly compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” a spokesperson told AFP in a statement. “The account has since been secured,” they added.
The hacking on Elon Musk’s X platform is the latest in a string of hate speech incidents since the billionaire bought then-Twitter in 2022 and axed moderation policies that he considers censorship. On Saturday, his xAI startup apologized for antisemitic posts published on X by its artificial intelligence assistant Grok, which praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Antisemitism is facing particular scrutiny in the United States after two Israeli embassy staffers were killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington in May. A firebombing attack at a protest in Colorado supporting Israeli hostages held in Gaza left over a dozen people wounded in June, and an 82-year-old woman later died from her injuries. Anger over Israel’s conduct of its war in Gaza resulted in widespread protests on US university campuses, with the government cracking down on the demonstrations after accusing them of antisemitism.
© 2024 AFP
