Tuesday December 27, 2022
Mogadishu (HOL) - British broadcaster and television journalist Piers Morgan's Twitter was the victim of a cyber attack on Monday after his Twitter account was hacked.
The 57-year-old presenter frequently uses the social media network, which was taken over by Tesla mogul Elon Musk earlier this year. He is known for his frank and often controversial opinions.
The hackers took over the account for nearly an hour. They tweeted about 100 profanity-laced messages to his 8.3 million followers, which included racist comments, links to music and promoting Greater Somalia, a political concept seeking to unite all ethnic Somalis under a single nation.
Hackers changed Morgan's username multiple times throughout the cyber attack.
The hackers fired their first salvo with a tweet proclaiming that internet personality Andrew Tate was shot dead in Dubai before promoting the Somali irredentism movement.
"Please recognize the territorial integrity of Somalia. All this land belongs to the Somali people," using the hashtag #HandsOffSomalia.
A photo of Abdirahman Dabacasar, a Somali social media influencer, was posted to Morgan's page with the caption "selfie."
The hackers also took aim at former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the royal family before being taken offline by Twitter.
Chuckling Squad, the alleged perpetrators of the incident, is a group of hackers that achieved prominence in 2019 for taking over several high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of numerous celebrities and public figures.