Elmo X account hacked, posts 'antisemitic and racist messages,' Sesame Workshop says
Elmo's X account is now secure after it was hacked and several racist and antisemitic messages were shared, according to the producers of "Sesame Street."
"Elmo's X account was briefly compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. The account has since been secured," a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, said in a statement to ABC News on Monday.
The compromised posts appear to have been deleted from the X account of the beloved Muppet character, who has more than 650,000 followers on the platform.
The since-deleted posts included racial slurs and antisemitic language, as well as comments about President Donald Trump and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to The New York Times.
As of Monday, the most recent post on Elmo's X account is from July 12 and features a photo of Elmo with Tango, another "Sesame Street" character.
X did not immediately reply to ABC News' request for comment.
The social media platform has faced questions about safety and hate speech on its platform since Elon Musk acquired X, formerly Twitter, in 2022.
Early into Musk's tenure as owner, X faced an advertiser boycott over concerns about hate speech and other content on the platform.
Earlier this month, another Musk-owned company, xAI, faced scrutiny when Grok, its artificial-intelligence chatbot, began posting antisemitic messages in response to X user queries.
The messages -- which Musk has said are being addressed -- drew condemnation from Jewish advocacy groups and raised concerns about the AI tool.
