What do Texas Baseball, Mayweather Promotions, and German Bundesliga team Borussia Dortmund all have in common?
All of them were hacked by people promoting a Turkish message comparing the Dutch to the Nazis. Here’s the bizarre and creepy-looking message which greeted unsuspecting Twitter followers of hacked accounts all over the world:
Not that those were the only accounts victimized by the hack. According to The Comeback:
There were plenty more on the sports side too, including the NHL Network, Boris Becker, Mayweather Promotions, Nike Spain, Kansas Speedway, Baseball Canada, the Ottawa 67s junior hockey team, and the Terry Fox Foundation. Beyond that, media outlets like Forbes were hit, as were the European Parliament, Amnesty International, the U.S. Embassy in Manila, and Unicef USA. The hack appears to have impacted thousands of accounts, all of which were made to tweet this same message.
Why Turks hacked into dozens of international accounts to accuse the Dutch of being Nazis, no one knows for sure. But, a more than reasonable guess is that the attack stems from the Dutch decision to block two Turkish ministers from addressing Turkish expats in Holland.
The ministers had planned to address rallies in Holland where expats would be asked to support a referendum in Turkey which would give Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan more power.
According to the BBC, “In retaliation, Turkey accused the Dutch of “Nazi” tactics, barred the Dutch ambassador from returning to Ankara, and suspended high-level relations with the Hague in a raft of diplomatic sanctions.”
In addition, the Turks accused the Dutch of allowing the Srebrenica Massacre of Muslims in 1995, and several other maladies.
Twitter can be a very, very scary place sometimes.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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