World News
Ex US president’s social media account displays weird content
The official Instagram account of the Obama White House displayed weird content in Sunday, suggesting it had been compromised.
The platform subsequently regained control of the page.
The account, @obamawhitehouse, began displaying unusual content on Sunday, including an AI-generated image accompanied by a caption alleging that “the White House is under Shiites’ control.” The posts quickly drew attention before being removed.
Instagram’s parent company, Meta, confirmed the incident, saying the account had since been secured and all unauthorised content deleted.
The hack also reportedly involved a series of Instagram Stories published without authorisation.
Barack Obama maintained a separate personal Instagram account, but the affected page is the official archival account of the Obama White House, with its last verified post dating back to January 20, 2017, the day of Donald Trump’s first inauguration.
Meta has not disclosed how the breach occurred or identified those responsible for the incident, which remains under investigation.