Hundreds of Twitter accounts were hacked earlier this week, with high-profile members tweeting messages of support towards Turkey in its diplomatic row with the Netherlands.
Nazi hashtags were tweeted the messages, written in Turkish, alongside links to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Accounts affected on Wednesday morning included official outlets for Unicef USA, BBC North America, Duke University and the European Parliament, as well as Justin Bieber’s Japanese account.
According to TechNewsWorld, the following message in Turkish, translated into English through Google Translate, also posted on affected accounts: “Now Old Turkey Nothing You Have Set Adjust Absolute Wheel Will Earn Traitors Crime Freaks Needed YES le Verecek Elbet.”
Twitter acknowledged the hack, tweeting:
We identified an issue affecting a small number of users. Source was a 3rd party app and it has been resolved. No action needed by users.
— Twitter Support (@Support) March 15, 2017
The tweets were hacked through third party app Twitter Counter, which allows users to track their Twitter stats and apparently has more than 180 million users. Twitter have since temporarily revoked the apps rights.
Diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Netherlands and Germany broke down earlier this week, after Dutch and German officials barred Turkish ministers from political rallies aimed at recruiting support for a referendum on April 16th, which would give greater power to Erdogan.
In the wake of the Dutch election earlier this week, during which the biggest proportion of the seats was won by sitting Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said:
“You look at the social democrats and the fascist Wilders, there is no difference, they have the same mentality.”