Hackers hijack Mexican chain’s Twitter and post homophobic slurs

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle has apologised after Twitter hackers posted homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic tweets from its account.

Early on Sunday, hackers took control of the companyā€™s US account @ChipotleTweets ā€“ declaring that the chainā€™s food had been ā€œpoisonedā€.

The hackers posted homophobic slurs including ā€œfagā€ and ā€œfaggotā€ ā€“ and telling followers to ā€œblow yourself upā€.

Hackers hijack Mexican chain’s Twitter and post homophobic slurs

The display picture on the account was also changed to a Nazi swastika, and it claimed the company was now in ā€œfull support of the Nazi Partyā€.

The account also posted racist slurs including ā€œP**iā€ and attacked the US president saying ā€œF*** that n***** Obama!ā€

The attack lasted two hours before the chain regained full control of its Twitter account, and

Chipotle has since apologised for the incident, saying: ā€œWe apologize for the very offensive messages sent out from our account earlier tonight. We were unfortunately hijacked temporarily.ā€

A spokesperson for Chipotle said: ā€œWe apologise for the nature of the posts that were made during that time, and we are now conducting an investigation to try to determine what happened and who might have been involved.ā€

In 2013 Chipotle orchestrated a fake hack on its own account to promote its 20th anniversary. At the time a representative said it was not meant to be ā€œharmful or hateful or controversialā€.