E! News twitter account hacked, Syrian source takes credit

Entertainment news outlet E!’s Twitter account was hacked Saturday, tweeting fake headlines about Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie and the conflict in Syria. The Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is claiming responsibility for the hack.

“Exclusive: Justin Bieber to E!online: I’m a gay,” reads the first fake tweet, sent at approximately 1 p.m. ET. “Angelina Jolie admits, in E! latest issue, that Jordan is to blame for the Syrian refugees’ atrocious conditions,” reads another. The obviously fake tweets have been retweeted thousands of times between them.

“Eonline’s Breaking News twitter and SMS accounts were compromised today”, E! News said in a statement. “We’re working to have this resolved as quickly as possible and are fully investigating the incident. We apologize for any confusion that the erroneous news alerts may have caused”. Two weeks ago CBS News’ 48 Hours and 60 Minutes accounts were similarly hacked.

Days later an attack on the AP’s Twitter feed caused a 100-point drop in the Dow Jones and the SEA claimed responsibility for that as well.