The hacked Elmo account posted tweets saying, “Elmo says ALL JEWS SHOULD DIE. F-K JEWS. DONALD TRUMP IS NETANYAHU’S PUPPET BECAUSE HE IS IN THE EPSTEIN FILES. JEWS CONTROL THE WORLD AND NEED TO BE EXTERMINATED.”
By Rachel Avraham
Elmo’s X account was taken over Sunday night by an unknown hacker, I24 news reported. According to the report, antisemitic content such as ‘Kill all Jews’ was posted to the official account and was taken down within the hour. The account posted tweets saying, “Elmo says ALL JEWS SHOULD DIE. F-K JEWS. DONALD TRUMP IS NETANYAHU’S PUPPET BECAUSE HE IS IN THE EPSTEIN FILES. JEWS CONTROL THE WORLD AND NEED TO BE EXTERMINATED.”
The hateful messages were written in Elmo’s signature third-person voice, making the incident especially jarring for many familiar with the character’s role as an educational and inclusive figure, Yedioth Achronot reported. According to the report, Elmo is one of the most recognizable characters from “Sesame Street,” a program known for its focus on child development and social values.
In a statement to Fox, the Sesame Workshop said it was regaining control of the furry red muppet’s social media account, which has nearly 650,000 followers and usually features uplifting posts and images of Elmo’s toothless smile, the Times of Israel reported. “Elmo’s X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” the company said. “We are working to restore full control of the account.”
Antisemitic voices have baselessly claimed that Jews are behind the suppression of a supposed list of Epstein’s “clients,” and some of Trump’s far-right supporters lashed out at his administration recently for closing the federal investigation into Epstein, the Times of Israel reported. In that vein, the Elmo posts suggested that Netanyahu had leverage over Trump because the president’s name was on the purported list, the Times of Israel added. According to the Jerusalem Post, the renewed interest in the Epstein files also came after X/Twitter CEO and former ally to Trump, Elon Musk, publicly accused Trump of being in the files. Accusing Trump of being a “child f****er,” the hacker demanded that the president “release the files,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Since eight million households generally watch Sesame Street each week, there has been various responses to the hack across social media. According to the Jerusalem Post, Joel Berry, the managing editor of the satirical paper The Babylon Bee, joked that he was “Looking forward to Tucker’s upcoming interview with Elmo.” A right-wing podcaster, Tucker Carlson has frequently hosted guests with openly antisemitic positions. According to the Jerusalem Post, Carlson insinuated that Jeffrey Epstein was working for Israeli intelligence services in a Friday address at a Turning Point USA event. Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli even accused Carlson last year of “ becoming the leading platform for fringe Holocaust deniers, conspiracy theorists, and blood libel enthusiasts…”
According to the Jerusalem Post, other prominent X accounts joked that the account had meant death to all Zionists, not Jews, and that Elmo had been hired as a UN Special Rapporteur – a reference to United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, who has faced frequent accusations of antisemitism. According to the report, Rep. Ritchie Torres also commented on the situation, writing on X: “Antisemitism is unsettlingly ubiquitous on social media.”
Photo from – Sesamestreet.org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmo#/media/File:Kevin_Clash_with_Elmo,_May_2010_(2)_(cropped).jpg
