On 20 September 2023, the New York Post reported that Donald Trump Jr.’s account was hacked. The account shared a series of offensive tweets that specified his father’s death and former US President Donald Trump.
The first tweet claimed that, “I’m sad to announce my father, Donald Trump, has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024. It was around 8. 25 a.m. that the tweet went live. Another tweet among all the other tweets was “How North Korea is about to get smoked” and“ Richard Heart is innocent, when I become president, I am going to burn the SEC”. The series of tweets from the hacked handle was later deleted, but not before one of them garnered over 140k views.
Recent hacking incidents raise the issues of exposed vulnerabilities in the micro-blogging platform’s online security and raise concerns about the misuse of social media platforms for spreading false information and promoting negativity. Incidents like this remind us of the challenges of safeguarding digital identities and information in the modern era. Individuals, Governments, and Private companies are becoming victims of the data misuse. A recent instance where the US-based mortgage settlement and real estate financial services company First American Financial Corp faced one of the biggest hacks in history.
Moreover, social media channels, which make information pass in seconds, have also pointed out the need for data privacy whilst safeguarding the individuals privacy requiring immediate actions.
