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Elmo's X account posted antisemitic and racist posts after it was hacked on Sunday, a spokesperson for the makers of said in a statement.
"Elmo's X account was briefly compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts," a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop, which is the nonprofit organization behind "Sesame Street," said on Monday.
The spokesperson said the social media account, which is verified and has more than 600,000 followers, has since been secured.
The posts contained slurs against Jews and commentary about President Trump and , the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who killed himself in prison in 2019 as he faced federal sex trafficking charges. The posts were removed Sunday afternoon, shortly after appearing on the platform.
Epstein's case has been back in the news after the Justice Department and FBI saying their review had found no evidence of a long-rumored "client list," and that security video confirms no one entered the cell area before Epstein's death. The findings sparked a furor among some Trump supporters after right-wing media figures spent years promoting the idea of a cover-up or conspiracy.
The posts on Elmo's X account were published several days after the team behind , Elon Musk's xAI chatbot, deleted several posts on Musk's X in which the and praised Adolf Hitler. The company later issued an apology.
Musk and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, have been of antisemitic and other hate speech on the site since he took ownership in October 2022. Musk allowed previously banned users back onto the platform — including , and some notorious neo-Nazi figures — and reduced content moderation in the name of free speech.
The Anti-Defamation League has also also been tracking a rise in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. The nonprofit that last year, it recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents nationwide, which is the highest number since it started monitoring more than four decades ago. That marked a 5% increase in incidents since 2023, and a 893% increase over the past decade.
