Last Updated on July 15, 2020
Twitter has stopped all verified accounts from posting after a major hack that targeted accounts like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kanye West, and Barack Obama.
Earlier this evening, several politicians and celebrities with verified Twitter accounts were targeted by hackers in a bitcoin scam that saw them promise to double money sent by their followers in a fraudulent act of philanthropy.
Verified Twitter users ranging from politicians to celebrities to business leaders were hacked on Wednesday, with several high profile accounts sharing identical links asking their followers to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to an unknown wallet, promising that the hacked celebrities would send back $2,000 as an act of philanthropy. The hack seems to have started with Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who had his account hijacked to post a message claiming the business tycoon was doubling all amounts of Bitcoin sent to him… Users established that the Bitcoin address posted by the hacked Twitter accounts is indeed real, “and there are transactions happening,” meaning people are sending the account Bitcoin.
The Twitter support account said they were “aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter,” and said that some people may be “unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.”
You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.
— Support (@Support) July 15, 2020
Looks like every blue checkmark account is now locked
Can confirm that @stillgray, @JackPosobiec, @Cernovich are all unable to post#hacked #twitterhacked
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) July 15, 2020
READ MORE: Twitter Fact Checked Trump’s CNN Bashing Meme
It was discovered that while ordinary users were not impacted by this decision, every verified account on the platform was silenced after the hack. This caused many ordinary users to celebrate the downfall of the “blue checkmarks”:
THIS IS GOD'S WILL
FOR YEARS THE BLUECHECKS HAVE JAILED AND OPPRESSED MY PEOPLE
TODAY THEY LEARN HOW IT FEELS
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) July 15, 2020
I know it's only been like 30 minutes, but so far Twitter is much nicer without the bluechecks and their bad opinions.
How do we keep it this way?
— Tom Pappert (@realTomPappert) July 15, 2020
FUCK THE BLUE CHECKMARKS
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 15, 2020
https://twitter.com/AetiusRF/status/1283529789589127168
We did it folks. A twitter without bluechecks. Our long national nightmare is over https://t.co/4g3uHtNJlL
— Vicente Fox Mulder (@WASPmexicano) July 15, 2020
At the time of writing, verified Twitter accounts are still not able to post due to the hack. However, there have been some unconfirmed reports that some unverified accounts are also not able to post, although this is not clear at this time.
Around three hours after the situation emerged, Twitter appeared to have solved the problem.
This is a breaking story, and will be updated when more information becomes available.
