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.
The fake tweets contained shortlinks appearing to be legitimate, but may point visitors' browsers to malware downloads or other damaging sites. It is inadvisable to click any links tweeted by @eonline until the situation is resolved.
The Syrian Electronic Army was also responsible for hacking the Associated Press Twitter account last month, sending a false story about an attack on the White House that had a temporary but serious impact on the financial markets. That hack sparked fresh pleas from many Twitter users for the company to roll out two-step verification, a security feature used by many other online platforms.
A spokesperson for E! parent company NBCUniversal could not be reached for comment.