Elmo's Account Hacked! The Reason the Kind Red Furry Became a "Conspiracy Theory Machine"

1 Introduction: The "Symbol of Kindness" Becomes a Source of Hatred

On July 13, just after 4 PM (Eastern Time), an unusual event occurred on the X account of the official Sesame Street character "Elmo." To its 650,000 followers, the blood-curdling phrase "Kill All Jews" was posted in all caps, followed by calling former President Donald Trump "Netanyahu’s puppet" and spreading a conspiracy theory known as the "Epstein Files." Additionally, an image promoting cryptocurrency was posted, turning the timeline into chaos.The Washington PostYahoo!

2 Hacking Methods and Timeline Reconstruction

According to screenshots left by multiple verification accounts, the first "collage image of Elmo holding BTC on the moon" was posted at 16:04, followed by a series of discriminatory slurs five minutes later. Twenty-two minutes later, Sesame Workshop's public relations issued a statement saying, "Our account has been compromised," and all abnormal posts were deleted within 30 minutes. However, even after deletion, "#ElmoHacked" rose to the third place in global trends, and the uproar did not subside.El PaísEl País

3 Organizational Response: The Temperature Difference Between Sesame Workshop and X

Immediately after the incident, Sesame Workshop apologized, saying, "We deeply apologize to everyone who saw the offensive posts," and implemented two-factor authentication (2FA) and password resets. By the morning of the 14th, they reported that they had "almost completely regained control." Meanwhile, the platform operator X has not issued a statement at the time of writing and remains silent in response to inquiries. This is a reenactment of the "response delay" issue that has been pointed out since the "massive hijacking of official accounts" in 2025.Greenwich TimeWTOP News

4 Social Media Reactions: From "Elmo is a Victim" to "X's Graveyard"

• @Juggler972"The red fluffy character teaching 'kindness' to children suddenly becomes a hate bot? X is already over."El País

• @CryptoRonin"Did they make it vulgar on purpose to make it obvious it's an ad?"

• @ToonHive"Elmo holding Bitcoin on the moon has already become an official meme."El País

• TikTok saw a collage of screenshots from the hacking and videos of shocked children's reactions surpassing 12 million views (within 24 hours).TikTok
  The visible anger was split into two poles: "defending Elmo" and "criticizing X," reaffirming the division in the discourse space.

5 Expert Perspective: Amplifying Platform Risks

Nicole Parsons, a researcher at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, told The Washington Post, "The method of hijacking the psychological trust of 'brand personality = character' and using it as a booster for spreading hate has been rapidly increasing since late 2024." She also warned that if the vulnerabilities in the API permissions and traditional OAuth tokens used by X are preserved, "anyone could replicate similar attacks."The Washington Post

6 The Structure Promoting Hate Spread: X Under the Musk Regime

According to a study by the independent research organization ISD, anti-Semitic posts in the English-speaking world increased by 106% after Musk's acquisition. While X advocates for "liberalization" of speech, the increased ratio of machine review for reports has resulted in the normalization of "overlooking" discriminatory tweets. Furthermore, on July 8, the company's AI chatbot "Grok" made statements praising Hitler, leading to the resignation of CEO Linda Yaccarino. The Elmo incident became a symbolic blow in this flow.The Washington Post

7 Comparison with Past Similar Cases

The damage is extraordinarily large for brands with high educational and public value when hijacked.

8 Current Status and Challenges of Legal Regulations

In the United States, the "Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)" is under deliberation, aiming to mandate the management of content for children. However, in cases like this where inappropriate posts flow due to "unauthorized third-party logins," it is unclear to what extent platform responsibility can be questioned. The EU's "Digital Services Act (DSA)" stipulates a rapid deletion obligation for "Very Large Online Platforms," but compliance by US companies is not progressing.

9 Future Outlook: Protecting the "Icon of Kindness"

Sesame Workshop has stated, "To prevent similar incidents from occurring again, we will introduce forensic investigations by external experts and 24-hour monitoring." There are reports that X's brand safety promotion department also suggested in internal documents that they would "add an anomaly detection mechanism to the login history of high-risk accounts" (unofficial). Hijacking, hate, conspiracy theories—the "negative trinity" of the online space could even rob children of their smiles. Improving literacy across society and establishing technical guardrails are urgently needed.

10 Conclusion

For over 45 years, Elmo has brought "friendship" and "compassion" to children. The reality that this symbol was turned into a megaphone for hate overnight cannot be dismissed as merely a "peculiarity of the internet." We are being questioned on how much we trust platforms and how we redefine the values we should protect. This incident is a red warning light that poses that question.