This has been a bad stretch for video games social media, particularly the accounts of the sports publishers. 2K Games had their social media hacked almost across-the-board yesterday evening, including the account of 2K Sports’ Ronnie Singh, better known as Ronnie 2K.
Singh’s Twitter account, which has 1.2 million followers, was snagged last night, and whoever got hold of it started tweeting a bunch of disparaging things about NBA 2K20. Other accounts caught in the blast included 2K Games itself on Twitter, the publisher’s Facebook page, and the Borderlands Facebook page.
This handle has been hacked and the recent offensive tweets from this evening have not been written or authorized by Ronnie 2K.
— Ronnie 2K 2K20 (@Ronnie2K) November 16, 2019
Social media accounts across the 2K label were compromised early Friday evening. Unfortunately, offensive material was posted that does not reflect the values of 2K or our partners. We condemn these posts and apologize to everyone offended by the content.
— 2K (@2K) November 16, 2019
This comes after a week in which hackers overran the accounts of EA Sports’ FIFA community managers, and used their Twitter handles to post messages in support of a top-flight player banned for repeated abusive conduct. The community managers, in some cases, had to delete their accounts entirely.
2K’s hack is a bit more significant, given Singh’s sizable followership and the fact 2K Sports has practically written the book on social media management, in building up NBA 2K to a mainstream phenomenon over the past decade. It doesn’t mean they’re immune to security holes or back doors, though. Twitter’s own chief executive, Jack Dorsey, had his account hacked at the end of August, after all. The perpetrators apparently found a way in through another service that Twitter had acquired.
So, just sayin’, might want to double-bag your social media logins, because “my Twitter was hacked” is an excuse practically no one accepts these days — even when it actually is.