Elmo speaks at The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything Festival in New York City, U.S., May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Hackers broke into the X account of Sesame Street character Elmo and posted antisemitic and racist messages, the makers of the children's TV show said on Monday.
The Sunday posts, which have been deleted, called for violence against Jews, insulted President Donald Trump and demanded the release of government files on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged clientele.
Elmo, a cheerful red Muppet, has more than 650,000 followers on X.
"Elmo's X account was briefly compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts," Sesame Workshop said in a statement, adding the account has since been secured.
X came under scrutiny last week when the account of the Grok chatbot developed by billionaire Elon Musk's company xAI produced content with antisemitic tropes. The posts were subsequently removed and called "inappropriate" by Grok's X account.
Since Musk bought what was then known as Twitter in 2022, he has cut back on moderation. Extremist content has increased, causing some advertisers to pull away from the platform.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
