Burger King's official Twitter account announced that McDonald's acquired the company after Burger King employees abused drugs for too long.
Even its profile picture was changed to a McDonald's logo, and the background wallpaper advertised McDonald's new Fish McBites.
Followers of @BurgerKing also were told that the burger giant was acquired by rival McDonald's as a result of persistent drug use of BK employees. Tweets even carried photos of alleged employees shooting drugs.
No such sale actually occurred, however — Burger King just got hacked. The breach lasted roughly one hour and 15 minutes, until Twitter suspended the account.
"Interesting day here at BURGER KING, but we're back," the company tweeted late Monday, Feb. 18. "Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around."
According to Burger King spokesman Bryson Thornton, the company didn't know who hacked its account, and no other social media accounts were compromised. Burger King's social media team and an outside agency manage its Twitter account, but Thornton did not say how many people knew the password for the account.
Meanwhile, it seems that hacktivist group Anonymous may be responsible for the hack, as part of its #OpMadCow move. The collective's @YourAnonNews Twitter account was tagged in a tweet from the @BurgerKing account saying "Everybody follow us! @YourAnonNews #OpMadCow." Another tweet from Anonymous' account joked that the @BurgerKing social media team must be having a bad day.
Considering Anonymous' moves so far, Burger King likely did something to stir the waters and draw the wrath of the hacktivist collective. If it did anything, it remains unclear what, and Anonymous' claims remain unconfirmed.
McDonald's, meanwhile, denied any involvement or responsibility for the hacking (if anyone suspected it), and dismissed the acquisition claims.
"We empathize with our @BurkerKing counterparts," tweeted McDonald's. "Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking."
On the other hand, it seems to be true what they say that any publicity is good publicity. Amid all the social media mayhem the hack caused, Burger King gained more than 30,000 new Twitter followers on its account since it was compromised. Burger King's account was up and running properly by late Monday night, as if nothing happened.
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