Rep. Maxine Waters (D–Calif.) claimed that her Twitter account was hacked and it wasn’t her that suddenly erased her account.
Twitter found no evidence for her claim.
Waters tweeted Tuesday, “I have been hacked and my Twitter account has been erased. I know who has done this. I will take care of this. M Waters.”
In response, members of the #Resistance poured out their love for “Auntie Maxine.”
Like many politicians, Waters uses two Twitter accounts: one for her campaign and one for official purposes.
The campaign account has remained inactive since June.
The watchdog organization ProPublica tracks politicians’ deleted tweets. The organization found that the official account had deleted six tweets less than one minute after sharing them. The campaign account has not deleted a tweet since November 2020.
Waters claimed to have found her account “erased,” but ProPublica‘s report also says otherwise.
A Twitter spokesperson interviewed with Reuters after the tweet.
“As is standard, we have open lines of communication with her office and have worked with them to ensure the account is secure,” the spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday, according to Reuters News. “At this time, we’ve identified no signs of account compromise.”
They are so scared of you coz you ended Trump. We are with you Aunty Maxine 💛💛💛💛💛💛
— Lynx 💛 (@LustrousLynx) October 12, 2021
I'm so glad I'm not the only person that thought this.
— Mrs Robinson (@arobinsonFL) October 12, 2021
Waters has been publicly embarrassed over hacking in the past. Last year, she spoke on the phone with someone claiming to be the environmental activist Greta Thunberg. In reality, the call was coming from two Russian pranksters.
The pranksters uploaded the phone call to their YouTube channel, and Waters’ office confirmed the incident in an email to The Washington Post.
After that incident. the Post asked Waters’ office about its security protocols for phone calls, but the paper didn’t receive a response.
Waters chairs the House Financial Services Committee. A security breach may jeopardize the country’s financial security.
As of Tuesday evening, Waters has not responded to Reuters’ request for comment.
The Horn editorial team