Trump’s ‘Twitter killer’ social media platform hacked on launch day

Hackers targeted the pro-Trump social media app on its launch day

Jason Miller, senior adviser to former US president Donald Trump launched the social media app GETTR on Sunday. Miller says over half a million people have registered to use the site.

The hacker was able to access to platform and change the names on several verified accounts to ‘@JubaBaghdad was here’.

“The problem was detected and sealed in a matter of minutes, and all the intruder was able to accomplish was to change a few user names,” Miller said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Miller said the situation had been “rectified” when asked about security on the new social media site.

Who is ‘JubaBaghdad’?

The Twitter account listed on the hack has a pro-palestine pinned Tweet, with a bio ‘we work in the darkness, but serve the light’. They appear to be from Iraq. At the time of reporting, the account only is following 27 users.

JubaBaghdad pops up online across several hacker forums and platforms including Bugreader, and appears to have a history volunteering to make platforms more secure for users.

There is a Medium account with the same username and bio. It’s unclear whether these were the same person, and whether JugaBaghdad is actually responsible for the hack.

What is GETTR?

GETTR is a Twitter-style platform with posts and trending topics. The app advertised itself on the Google and Apple app stores as “a non-bias social network for people all over the world.” 

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on Sunday described GETTR as “the Twitter killer” in a post on the new site.

Miller told Fox News earlier this week he hoped Trump would join but that the former president was considering a number of options. He said Trump was not funding the platform.