Earlier today, hackers from the Syrian Electronic Army got into the Twitter account for E! Online and tweeted out the false news that Justin Bieber had come out as “a gay.”
The E! account has since been suspended, much like what happened with the Associated Press account following the erroneous tweet that there had been an explosion at the White House. The AP hack, too, had come at the hands of the Syrian Electronic Army, which is actually composed of people loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad. They have previously targeted news organizations like The Guardian, Al Jazeera and NPR, usually sending out anti-Israeli or pro-Assad tweets once they gained access.
The Syrian civil war has raged for two years now and killed about 70,000 people. Both loyalists to the regime and opposition forces have used social media to get their messages out and attack their opponents. This Bieber thing takes the conflict into some absurd new territory.
MashableAndrew Kaczynski