Donald Trump Jr.’s X Account Hacked

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Facts

• Donald Trump Jr.’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, was hacked on Wednesday morning. Numerous posts with false information were published to his 10.4M followers.¹
• One of the untrue posts announced the death of his father, former US Pres. Donald Trump, and claimed that Trump Jr. would be running for president in 2024.²
• Other posts included messages like 'North Korea is about to get smoked' and inflammatory comments about Pres. Joe Biden, Jeffrey Epstein, and influencer Richard Heart.³
• The posts were deleted from the account within an hour. A spokesperson confirmed the hacking.¹
• The hack comes after Elon Musk, owner of X, promised to improve the platform's security and clamp down on scam accounts with a new verification system.¹
• It's not clear whether Trump Jr. had additional security features, like two-factor authentication, enabled or whether the hacker accessed his private messages.³

Sources: ¹Forbes, ²Evening Standard and ³New York Post.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by CNN. The mess of security on X and high-profile hacks impact us all – even those whose accounts aren't hacked. The platform, and the free flow of accurate information, are essential to democracy. Misinformation can spread like wildfire on social media and negligence around security on X endangers both users' security and national security, especially ahead of the upcoming election.
• Narrative B, as provided by X. X is working to combat manipulation and hacking with new security measures and rules. There's a fine balance between fighting harmful content and censoring political debate, though. The work is ongoing and X is doing what it can to ensure accurate and safe political discourse.