McDonald’s swears it had nothing to do with the Monday hacking of Burger King’s Twitter account.
Burger King was struck by an apparent “Hamburglar” of sorts Monday when its official Twitter account was hacked and had its name changed to McDonald’s.
“This has nothing to do with us,” McDonald’s spokesperson Ofelia Casillas told The Daily Caller in an email. “Please refer additional questions to Twitter.”
The Burger King Twitter account came under the control of hackers who used the account to announce that Burger King had been sold to McDonald’s after BK employees were caught in a bathroom using narcotic pain killers and intravenous needles.
We just got sold to McDonalds! Look for McDonalds in a hood near you @dfnctsc
— McDonalds (@BurgerKing) February 18, 2013
We caught one of our employees in the bathroom doing this… #soldtomcdonalds #failurewhopper @mcdonalds twitter.com/BurgerKing/sta…
— McDonalds (@BurgerKing) February 18, 2013
The account’s biography stated that the sale happened “because the Whopper flopped.”
The hackers drew attention to the Anonymous-affiliated Twitter account @YourAnonNews, calling the prank “OpMadCow“.
Everybody follow us! @youranonnews #OpMadCow
— McDonalds (@BurgerKing) February 18, 2013
Twitter users speculated that the prank was done by hackers associated with the collective. The Burger King account and YourAnonNews did not return The Daily Caller’s request for comment as to whether the hack was an Anonymous operation. One of the tweets also contained the hashtag “#LulzSec”, alluding to the Anonymous spin-off group brought down by the FBI in 2012 after a string of attacks on major corporate and federal institutions in 2011.
— McDonalds (@BurgerKing) February 18, 2013
Asked about the apparent hacking, Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser told TheDC, “We don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.” As of 1:26 p.m. EST, Twitter had suspended the account.
Burger King has not returned TheDC’s request for comment.