Fox News Tweets hacked, says Obama dead

Washington: Hackers seem to be celebrating 4 July by taking over the Political Twitter feed of US broadcaster Fox News and announcing that President Barack Obama had been shot dead on America’s national day. The @foxnewspolitics feed stated: “@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead.” The string of messages continued and soon enough the hastag**#**ObamaDead started trending like wildfire. “@BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out”, and then: “@BarackObama shot twice at a Ross’ restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. RIP Obama, best regards to the Obama family.” [caption id=“attachment_36182” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Screen grab from Twitter”] [/caption] Just an hour before the message, there was a post “Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th”. July 4 is America’s national day. Even nearly three hours after the last twitter update on the account wishing luck to the “new” President John Biden, none of the messages have been removed. Reporting that hackers have taken over a Twitter account belonging to Fox News, BBC said a group or individual, calling themselves ‘The Script Kiddies’ appeared to claim responsibility. Fox News Politics is one of the Twitter accounts associated with the industry-leading cable news network, the BBC said adding its Twitter account carries the “verified” tick icon, indicating that the feed belongs to the organisation it claims to be. BBC said it is unclear why Fox News has been attacked in this instance. “However, the broadcaster’s conservative stance has made it unpopular with many Americans.” Fox News is said to be the most watched cable news network in the United States, with its prime time shows attracting almost two million viewers, well ahead of rivals CNN and MSNBC. An attack on another Fox Entertainment Group website, Fox.com was the first confirmed hit by hacker group Lulz Security in May 2011, BBC said. Agencies