Sony’s Twitter Account Hacked, Tweeted Death of Britney Spears

By THC Staff | December 30, 2016

 

On Monday, Sony Music lost control of the Twitter account when hackers began posting false statements, including ones that singer Britney Spears had died. USA Today reports that two of the tweets read, “RIP @britneyspears #RIPBritney 1981-2016,” and “Britney spears is dead by accident! We will tell you more soon #RIPBritney.” Though the tweets were written hastily with no capitalization and an unprofessional looking crying emoji paired with the news, the rumor was strengthened by a similar post on Bob Dylan’s official Twitter account that read “Rest in peace @britneyspears.”

The Guardian writes that Dylan is a “Sony artist” and that both of the accounts were hacked at the same time, which Sony confirmed on Monday afternoon. Britney Spears is completely fine, and Sony apologized to Spears herself and any fans who were distraught by the message that seemed to punctuate and exploit the fear of noteworthy celebrity deaths in 2016.

The group OurMine says that they were responsible. Wired wrote a piece on the hacker group earlier this year who said their goal is to let everyone know they’re vulnerable on the internet by hacking major companies and celebrity accounts. They boast about their activities on their website and claim to be a “security group.”