A spokesperson for New York Governor Kathy Hochul has slammed the New York Post after the paper was hacked and a series of vile headlines and tweets were posted on the outlet’s site and Twitter account.
One of the fake tweets and headlines stated that Ms Hochul’s opponent in November’s gubernatorial election, Republican Representative Lee Zeldin, was going to rape her.
“The New York Post has long fostered an ugly, toxic conversation on their front pages and social accounts, but these posts are more disgusting and vile than usual,” Hochul spokesperson Jerrel Harvey said, according to the New York Daily News.
“The New York Post has been hacked,” the paper tweeted. “We are currently investigating the cause.”
Mr Harvey said that an investigation must find out “how this reprehensible content was made public,” adding that “while the Post has made its preferences very clear in the New York Governor’s race, there is no room for this violent, sexist rhetoric in our politics. We demand answers”.
Another fake headline stated that Texas Governor Greg Abbott was authorising the killing of undocumented immigrants and tweets attributed racist comments about New York City Mayor Eric Adams to Mr Zeldin.
A fake op-ed argued that New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez must be assassinated.
Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for Mr Adams, tweeted that “these vile, racist, and sexist comments have no place in public discourse, even by those unlawfully hacking a Twitter account”.
New York Representative Adriano Espaillat tweeted that “violence against women and female politicians is a global issue”.
“It is dangerous and reckless to promote femicide. I am calling for an investigation into this series of social media posts targeting @KathyHochul @AOC from your account. Now!” he added.
Other fake posts included threats to President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a faked threat against Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer by his Republican opponent Frank Pallotta.
It’s thought that already published articles had their headlines edited and were published again under new web addresses and then tweeted automatically.
The erroneous headline regarding Ms Ocasio-Cortez was connected to a real column authored by right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro concerning her sharing criticism of Mr Biden’s poll numbers.
