Fans and children alike will follow Elmo’s official X account, which boasts a robust 650,000 followers. An unidentified hacker hijacked it and used it to tweet a string of racist, misogynist and otherwise sickening messages. While we don’t know details of that specific occurrence, it has raised some red flags about security on the new platform.
The hacker’s posts quickly descended into rantings that included antisemitic language and other racial slurs. They too added racist comments on public figures such as former President Donald Trump and dead sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Elmo’s account promptly erased the messages. By then they had already ignited significant outcry from many advocacy organizations, including prominently those advocating for the rights of Jews.
A spokesperson for Sesame Workshop stated, “Elmo’s X account was briefly compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. The account has since been secured.” This recent missive underscores the continued complexity of content moderation practices on platforms like social media. It’s especially timely given the battle against hate speech.
The event has raised the question of just how effective our existing security measures are. It further underscores the vital role artificial intelligence tools are playing in detecting harmful content. Critics point out that X has a long history of failing to prevent the spread of hate speech. This is not the first instance of alarmist warnings in this regard. Earlier this year in Elon Musk’s ownership, the platform faced an advertiser-led boycott over just such worries regarding x’s unsafe content.
As of Monday, Elmo’s fiction-posting ceiling-breaker July 13 was the last valid post under his account. It features an image of the world-famous Muppet with Tango, the other new “Sesame Street” character. This wholesome content could not be more different than the hateful messages sent by the hacker. Combined, they illustrate what is broken in our online security landscape and capture the public’s imagination.
Elon Musk personally has trolled the community for demanding those very things. Yet this event is a stark reminder of the harms that social media companies continue to neglect in protecting their users. Advocacy groups continue to call for stricter measures to combat hate speech and protect users from similar incidents in the future.
