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Former President Donald J. Trump announced on Wednesday evening that he will launch a “media powerhouse”. Its flagship operation will be Truth Social, a Twitter-like social network that will “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” said in a statement.
Within two hours, hackers had access to a special version of the social network, creating fake accounts for Mr. Trump; far-right personality Stephen K. Bannon; QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins; and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, who banned Mr Trump from Twitter after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan.
Using a fake “donaldjtrump” account, hackers posted images of defecating pigs, wrote abusive rants targeting Mr. Dorsey, and asked where former first lady Melania Trump was. Images of hackers’ handiwork circulated on other social media platforms.
In interviews Thursday, hackers affiliated with the freelance hacking collective Anonymous said the effort was part of their “online war against hate.”
After a hiatus of several years, Anonymous has re-emerged as a digital force against the far right. The collective recently removed a Texas Republican website after an anti-abortion bill was passed and replaced the site with the Planned Parenthood fundraising event. And last month, Anonymous was behind the breach by Epik, an internet services company popular with the far-right that dumped 220 gigabytes of data, including its customers’ personal information.
Hackers uncovered the inside of Truth Social ahead of its launch, demonstrating that Mr. Trump’s soon-to-be-launched social network has lax security measures, leaving open the ability to mislead anyone, including the former president.
Mr Trump had revealed the social network in an online presentation Wednesday as part of the Trump Media and Technology Group, which aims to take over major social media platforms.
A representative of the Trump media company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We had a fun time trolling him to high heaven,” Aubrey Cottle, a hacker affiliated with Anonymous who goes by the alias Kirtaner, said in an interview.
A Truth Social app became available for “pre-order” on Apple’s App Store on Wednesday, inviting anyone interested to join a waiting list for release. Mr Cottle said the digital scraps in this post were enough for him and other Anonymous hackers to gain access to the pre-release version of the app.
Mr Cottle said after breaking in, hackers were posting memes from fake accounts for Mr Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and other important figures.
The event forced app developers of Trump Media & Technology Group to block new accounts and eventually shut down the development platform. (The New York Times reviewed screenshots that support the hackers’ claims.)
The breach and its aftermath did not prevent shares of Mr. Trump’s SPAC company, Digital World Acquisition, from jumping from 400 percent to $52 per share on Thursday, following news of the merger that will launch Mr Trump’s social media platform on Wednesday.
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