Antisemitic posts appear on Elmo’s X account after hack

Elmo's X account was hacked on July 13. (Kimberly P. Mitchell/USA Today/Imagn via CNN Newsource)

Elmo’s X account was hacked on Sunday, causing the beloved “Sesame Street” character to appear to post expletive-filled antisemitic rants and anti-Trump statements.

The posts have since been deleted, but widely circulated screenshots show Elmo apparently calling for violence against Jews and calling for the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.

“Elmo’s X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop, the makers of “Sesame Street,” told CNN in a statement. “We are working to restore full control of the account.”

CNN has contacted X for comment.

The tirade was a jarring departure from Elmo’s usual upbeat, motivational posts and wholesome pictures with other “Sesame Street” characters or celebrities. Some of the posts even mimicked his habit of referring to himself in the third person.

The posts came a week after Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI froze its Grok chatbot’s X account after it began spouting antisemitic tropes and White nationalist talking points.

The company later issued a lengthy apology, saying that a system update caused Grok to refer to “existing X user posts; including when such posts contained extremist views,” meaning that it issued responses praising Adolf Hitler, repeated conspiracy theories and spewed longstanding antisemitic tropes.

Jewish leaders in the United States have been alarmed by the rise in antisemitic threats since Hamas’ deadly terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent response in Gaza, which has devastated the enclave.

In June, a man is accused of targeting a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, resulting in the death of an 82-year-old woman. He faces federal hate crimes charges, among others.

In May, two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, DC, were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum; and, in April, an arsonist set the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on fire on the first night of Passover because of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s views on the war in Gaza, according to search warrants.

The Elmo hacker’s posts also referenced documents relating to the Epstein case, which has been in the headlines again in recent days. Last week, US President Donald Trump’s administration released a memo about Epstein – an accused sex trafficker and disgraced financier who died by suicide in 2019 – that were directly at odds with conspiracy theories previously pushed by the president and some of his top lieutenants.

Issy Ronald, CNN