Asia-Pacific

Fox News hacker tweets Obama dead

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-07-04 22:56

WASHINGTON - The Twitter account of FoxNews.com's political news feed, FoxNewspolitics, was hacked on Monday and sent several false tweets saying that President Barack Obama had been shot dead.

Related readings:  Secret Service to probe hack on Fox News Twitter

"Those reports are incorrect, of course, and the president is spending the July 4 holiday with his family," Foxnews.com said on Monday in statement saying its site had been hacked.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.

Obama is celebrating the July 4 Independence holiday with his family at the White House.

The first tweet appeared around 2 a.m. and said: "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."

The next one, "@BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out"

In all some six false tweets were issued, saying Obama had been shot at a restaurant in Iowa while campaigning.

Obama has not been in Iowa this weekend and returned on Sunday to the White House from a brief trip to Camp David.

"Hackers sent out several malicious and false tweets that President Obama had been assassinated," the FoxNews statement said. "The hacking is being investigated, and FoxNews.com regrets any distress the false tweets may have created."

It was the latest incident in a series of high-profile global wave of hackings over the past few weeks.

The security breach raises questions about the integrity of news feeds on Twitter. There was no immediate reply from Twitter to a Reuters email seeking comment.