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Disneyland's official Instagram and Facebook page was hacked on Thursday by a self-proclaimed "super hacker," who filled the page with racist and offensive posts. The page was temporarily taken down to remove the "reprehensible content" but was soon restored without any of the offensive posts.
Operating under the name "David Do," two of the four unsanctioned posts included a photo of an Asian man. Though the captions appeared to indicate that the picture was of the hacker himself, it is still unclear who was behind the malicious activity.
A spokesperson from Disneyland said in a statement that the theme park's social media accounts were compromised. The company has since secured its accounts. Meanwhile, the security team is conducting an investigation to nab the hacker.
Motive behind Disneyland's Instagram account hack explored
The hacker, who introduced himself as "David Do," claimed that he was seeking "revenge" from Disneyland. More specifically, he was exacting revenge from its employees at Anaheim's California amusement park.
The hacker wrote:
"I am f*ck*ng tired" of employees at the Anaheim, California amusement park, mocking me for having a small p*n*s," WHO'S THE TOUGH GUY NOW JEROME?"
The hacker made multiple posts on the theme park's Instagram account, featuring explicit language and offensive and racial slurs. One of the posts claimed that he "invented Covid-19" and is currently working on the new "Covid 20" variant.
The hacker cheekily tagged several other Instagram accounts to his posts, one of them being media personality DJ Akademiks. However, no connection has been established between the two as of writing.
The hacker further encouraged Instagram users to follow his private Instagram account @chi11estpanda. The private account has the same display picture as "David Do" and the bio reads:
"I'm not a super hacker. I'm being framed by people who think I have a laptop that they want to steal. Just wait, The truth shall set you free."
None of the other official accounts of the theme park seem to be affected. By Friday, the Instagram page too seemed to be back to normal, with all of its posts and 8.4 million followers secured.
Netizens are left in shock over Disneyland social media hack incident
Social media went into a frenzy after news of the theme park's social media accounts being compromised came out. Emotions ranged from shock to anger to amusement.
Some took to Twitter to express their disbelief, while others posted comments on the hacked posts, urging the authorities to take quick action.
A Twitter user wrote that the "racist and homophobic" content on the Instagram page was completely unacceptable.
Some users who found out about the hacking incident wondered "what was wrong with people." Meanwhile, others posted hilarious memes about them trying to figure out who the hacker was.
Attempts to catch the hacker have been unsuccessful so far, and no statement has been issued regarding any legal consequences of the act.
The incident comes almost a year after three Disney theme park employees were arrested in Florida. This was part of an operation to catch sexual predators who use the internet to target unassuming children.
