- Twitter was hit with a massive hack on Wednesday, and many people with verified accounts reported being unable to tweet following the incident.
- Twitter's support account said that some users may be unable to tweet or change their password as it was investigating the issue.
- The hack prompted accounts of high-profile figures like former president Barack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and rapper Kanye West among others to spread a bitcoin scam.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Twitter was hit with a massive hack on Wednesday that caused the accounts of high-profile public figures such as former president Barack Obama and companies like Apple and Uber to tweet out messages about bitcoin donations.
Shortly after the accounts were compromised, many people with verified Twitter accounts discovered that they couldn't tweet. It's unclear precisely why this occurred, but Twitter's support account said that some people might be unable to tweet or change their password as the company looks into the situation.
"We're continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this," says the company's most recent tweet on the matter. "Thanks for your patience."
The hack, and the subsequent disabling of the tweet functionality for verified users, caused major disruptions among business and individuals. There were even reports that certain public services with verified accounts were unable to post important notices.
At the time of writing, some verified users, who have a distinctive blue check mark alongside their names, appear to be able to tweet again, while others are still being blocked.
Verified users who are still experiencing issues are seeing an error message saying their action is being flagged as "suspicious" when they attempt to send a tweet.
Tweet Embed://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283533498838441984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
okay...so, i understand the verified people are back. this is awkward. listen, we thought you'd be gone for a while. the last 9 minutes were all a bit...ignore the post office and aqueduct system we builtTweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283531428261621760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Hello, because all my verified @nytimestech colleagues are muzzled right now, I am passing this along: "This is the best thing that's happened to twitter, let's keep it this way" — @daveyalbaTweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283531292189941760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And we're back.
Open the floodgates!Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283527933257068544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Verified accounts finding single word tweets to re-tweet to form sentences because they can't tweet right now. lolTweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283534524136267779?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Me, a twitter user: lol blue checks can't tweet about cake rn
Me, a disasterologist: Oh god. Emergency management agencies, NWS, etc. cannot send out emergency warnings via twitter right now. 😬😬Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283538086870175744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
DISTRIBUTE THEIR WEALTH ☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1283541148758192128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Blue checks right now like: pic.twitter.com/r1QxheylrR
The troubles occured after a bitcoin scam swept across Twitter on Wednesday, in which all affected accounts published similar messages urging their followers to send money to a specific bitcoin address.
Many of the tweets were deleted soon after publication, but the hack affected the official accounts of Apple and Uber, as well as Joe Biden, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, and many others. Twitter has said it's aware of the security incident and is currently taking steps to fix it.
The hack appears to have occured after several cryptocurrency shared malicious links on Twitter.
Twitter has not shared additional information why some verified users may be having trouble tweeting other than the statements shared above.
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See Also:
- Some of the world's biggest Twitter accounts are hacked. Here's what we do and don't know about what's going on right now.
- Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates appear to have had their Twitter accounts hacked as part of a bitcoin-giveaway scam
- Hackers took over dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, and Apple and used them to post bitcoin scam links
