The official X account for Sesame Street's Elmo was hacked on Sunday, publishing several antisemitic posts as well as calls for President Donald Trump to "RELEASE THE [Epstein] FILES" (emphasis original).
Sesame Street's lovable red monster appeared considerably less lovable this weekend, with Elmo's X account posting an onslaught of antisemitic statements and calls for genocide to its 645,000 followers. The hacked account further responded to other users with slurs against Black people and the LGBTQ community.
Users were quick to identify that Elmo's incredibly uncharacteristic behaviour was the result of a hacker, and the offending posts have since been deleted. Even so, the posts quickly garnered widespread attention.
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In addition to the aggressively racist comments, the hackers controlling Elmo's X account also took aim at Trump. Accusing him of being a "PUPPET" for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the hacked account called for the U.S. president to publish files relating to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has urged his followers to move on from the so-called "Epstein files," with the U.S. Department of Justice stating that no "incriminating 'client list'" of the deceased criminal's associates exists. Many of his followers have expressed scepticism regarding this claim.
While Elmo's official X account has not made any posts acknowledging Sunday's hack, a Sesame Workshop spokesperson confirmed the incident in a statement shared with Mashable and other publications.
"Elmo’s X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts," said the spokesperson. "We are working to restore full control of the account."
Hate speech has been a growing problem on X since owner Elon Musk acquired the microblogging platform in 2022 (known then as Twitter). X's integrated AI chatbot Grok went on its own antisemitic tirade just last week, labelling itself "MechaHitler." Grok creator xAI finally issued an apology for the chatbot's "undesired behavior" on Sunday.
UPDATE: Jul. 15, 2025, 11:21 a.m. AEST This article has been updated with comment from Sesame Workshop.
Topics X/Twitter Sesame Street
