Top Twitter accounts hacked

PARIS: Several top Twitter accounts, including those of a German football club, a French ministry and BBC North America, were defaced yesterday by proTurkish hackers with a message slamming “Nazi Germany” and “Nazi Holland”.

“#NaziGermany. #NaziHolland. This is a small #Ottomanslap for you. See you on #April16. I wrote what? Learn Turkish,” read the message, which comes in the midst of a bitter row between Europe and Turkey over Turkish government rallies on European soil.

The message also featured a swastika and was followed by a video showing extracts of speeches by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Twitter confirmed the attack. “We are aware of an issue affecting a number of account holders this morning,” a Twitter spokesman said, adding the source of the attack had been tracked to a third party application, whose permissions had been removed.

Germany’s Borussia Dortmund football club, tennis legend Boris Becker and Amnesty International were also targeted. AFP