A slew of racist and profane posts on the Buffalo Wild Wings branded Twitter account Friday was the result of a malicious hacker taking over the feed, the fried poultry franchise confirmed.
The string of tweets began shortly after 6:30 p.m. CT and stood unchecked for about 20 minutes. They ranged from juvenile profanities to accusations against a fast food franchise. One included a bizarre and racially charged reminder that Madeleine McCann has been missing for nearly a decade. McCann is an English girl who went missing in Portugal when she was 3-years-old in 2007.
Another post attacked film producer and writer Tariq Nasheed with a racial slur. Nasheed tweeted screenshots of the tweet saying he didn't know if the account had been hacked or not but he wants an apology.
“Buffalo Wild Wings’ Twitter account was hacked,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement. “We’re sorry that our fans had to see those awful posts, which obviously did not come from us. We are in touch with our Twitter representatives and will pursue the appropriate action against the individuals involved.”
One of the tweets appeared to be an image of a young man or boy with disheveled hair and a scarf obscuring the lower half of his face.
Twitter has since restored the account and Buffalo Wild Wings is back in control of the feed.
The offensive tweets have since been deleted.
