'Disgusting': Hacked account of Sesame Street puppet Elmo spreads anti-Semitic messages

The X account of Elmo, the star character of the American children's television program "Sesame Street," was hacked to post anti-Semitic and anti-Donald Trump messages, the program said.

A series of messages calling for the "killing of all Jews" and calling the US president a "puppet" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were shared via the Red Monster account, which is used to posting positive messages and is followed by more than 650,000 users.

An archived version of the X account showed several messages were posted Sunday afternoon. They were later deleted, although a link to a Telegram page apparently associated with the hack remained in the account's bio section.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind " Sesame Street ," said an unidentified hacker was behind the messages.

"Elmo's X account was briefly hacked yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including anti-Semitic and racist ones ," a spokesperson told AFP in a statement. "The account has since been secured," the same source added.

The hack of Elon Musk's X platform is the latest in a string of hate speech incidents since the billionaire bought Twitter in 2022 and removed moderation policies he deemed censorship.

On Saturday, his startup xAI apologized for anti-Semitic posts on X by its AI assistant Grok , which praised Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Anti-Semitism has been under increased scrutiny in the United States since two Israeli embassy staff members were killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington in May.

A Molotov cocktail attack on a rally in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza also injured more than a dozen people in June in Colorado, and an 82-year-old woman died from her injuries.