Fortnite Twitter gets hacked following controversial World Cup announcements
SwitchWhat had already been a contentious day for Epic Games was topped off with the official Fortnite Twitter account getting hacked.
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On April 3, all 7.35 million followers of Fortnite’s Twitter account were made audience to a series of interesting tweets after someone had found a way to gain access to the account.
There were several tweets put out by the hacker(s), some random, some a lot more specific, such as the very recognizable “revert the changes” rhetoric that much of the player-base has been pushing since the release of the v8.20 update two weeks ago.
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All of the tweets were deleted very shortly after being posted, but we managed to grab screenshots and include them below for your conveniences:
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Who hacked Fortnite’s Twitter account?
The exact identity of the hacker(s) has not yet been confirmed, and we may never end up knowing exactly who the culprits were. However, one of the tweets did instruct Fortnite’s Twitter followers to go follow another account, which may very well belong to someone who was involved.
Furthermore, the hacker(s) also instructed followers to use a specific Creator Code in the Fortnite Item Shop, and the person to whom the code belongs to put out a tweet laughing about the situation a short while after it had developed.
How did they hack Fortnite’s Twitter account?
According to FNBRLeaks, a prominent outlet for Fortnite news and leaks, it has been confirmed that the hacker(s) did not exactly hack Fortnite’s Twitter account directly, but rather gained access to the account of Matt ‘Loomin’ Layman, who works in the esports department at Epic Games.
According to the report, since Loomin had access to Fortnite’s Twitter account via Tweetdeck, the hackers were able to put out the tweets without actually needing to access that account directly.
The Dev was @Loomin__ by the way.
— Fortnite: Battle Royale Leaks (@FNBRLeaks) April 3, 2019
Why did they hack Fortnite’s Twitter account?
Again, the reason for why these hackers decided to mess with Fortnite’s Twitter account may never end up truly coming to light. However, having the chance to troll one of the biggest gaming companies in the world in front of their own 7.35 million followers could have had something to do with it.
However, it also doesn’t come as a coincidence that this ended up happening just hours after Epic had put out a very controversial rule change to the screen resolutions for the upcoming Fortnite World Cup qualifiers.
A large majority of the competitive player-base was very frustrated with the change, and adding on the fact that most were already unhappy about the v8.20 update, this hacking could have just been a form of payback.
