Havering Council had to pull its X (formerly Twitter) account offline on Friday morning after a bot hacked the page and posted an inappropriate image. The shocking content briefly appeared in the early hours, sparking quick action from the council.
Offensive Post Hits Havering’s X Feed
The offending post popped up sometime before 4am on January 9. The Recorder spotted the content and alerted the council shortly after. By 7.24am, Havering Council confirmed it was aware of the hack and scrambling to fix the mess.
In a blunt tweet, the council said: “This account has been hacked – we deeply apologise for the offensive post on here. We are working to address this urgently. Please use our website to contact us for any customer enquiries. Thank you.”
Council Moves Fast to Clean Up
Havering Council removed the inappropriate content and temporarily deactivated its X account to secure it from further damage. A spokesperson explained:
“We found that our X account had been hacked and an inappropriate post was reposted on the site. We believe this was done by a bot rather than an individual. We temporarily took the account down and deleted the post. We have ensured it is secure and protected and will continue to monitor the site. Sadly, we are in a world where all public bodies are subject to such attacks by malicious individuals and groups and we remain vigilant. In this case we were able to act quickly.”
Other Social Media Accounts Safe
The council confirmed that none of its other social media platforms were affected by the hack. For now, residents are urged to use Havering’s official website for any enquiries.
