Several verified profile pages on Gettr, the new social media platform from Jason Miller, once an advisor to former President Trump, were apparently hacked and defaced briefly on Sunday (via Insider).
The accounts of several well-known Republicans, including Miller, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Florida had their pages’ header images replaced with the same message: “@JubaBaghdad was here 🙂 ^^ free palestine ^^.” according to screenshots. Twitter user @JubaBaghdad told Insider it was easy to hack the pages and that he had done it “just for fun.” Most of the affected profiles appeared to be back to normal at the time of publication.
Zachary Petrizzo, a writer for Salon, posted screenshots on Twitter of what the pages looked like:
Gettr was supposed to have its official launch today, July 4th. It had a soft launch in June, Politico reported, and plans to host three-minute videos, 777-character posts, and live streaming video. Its app is live in Google and Apple’s app stores, with the tagline “Marketplace of Ideas.” The app’s “about” section describes it as “a brand new social media platform founded on the principles of free speech, independent thought, and rejecting political censorship and ‘cancel culture.’” The app has an M for “mature” rating, meaning it’s intended for users 17 and older.
After Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter in January following the insurrection at the Capitol building, he said he planned to launch his own social platform. A blog titled “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” launched in May on his website, but was shut down and archived in June. Miller said at the time that the website was not intended to be Trump’s social media platform.
Miller told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that Trump wasn’t on Gettr at that point. Bloomberg reported that the former president did not have plans to join Gettr.
An email to Gettr wasn’t immediately returned on Sunday.