2K Games Facebook accounts hacked by infamous Chuckling Squad

Olivia Richman Published 16/11/2019

Last night, Borderlands publisher 2K Games apologized for a series of racist posts made on their Facebook pages.

“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,” they explained on Borderlands’ official account.

On November 15, fans noticed several offensive comments coming from the official 2K Facebook page. This was followed by similar posts on the WWE 2K Facebook page. The first two posts said “f*ck nba nigga” and “n***er.”

Soon after, the hacker posted, “10,000 likes and I’ll release something insane on 2K.”

The post got to 4,000 reactions before the hacker decided to continue onward. They posted more racial slurs and some sexually innapropriate statements. They also let everyone know they were having fun hacking 2K’s social media accounts.

But at some point, it seemed like employees were catching on and beginning to erase what the hacker had done.

“There’s an employee out here refreshing and removing/updating the pic every time and he can’t do anything to stop it. let that sink in ladies and gentlemen,” wrote the hacker from the WWE 2K account when the employees started to revert the profile picture and banner.

The official Twitter account for Sid Meier’s Civilization informed fans that they were aware of the ongoing hack.

“We are aware that social media accounts across the 2K label have been compromised and offensive material is being posted that does not reflect the values of 2K or our partners. We are actively working to fix this as soon as possible,” they tweeted.

2K not first big account to be hacked

One thing that people noticed was that the name “nublom” was used as a sign off on some of the status updates. It’s possible this is the tag of one of the hackers, who appears to be part of the “Chuckling Squad.”

The Chuckling Squad is likely a familiar name for those that follow stories surrounding YouTubers and streamers.

In early October, YouTuber Alissa Violet shared a nude photograph with tabloid Instagram account the Bread Batch. She claimed that a hacker had been threatening to leak it, so she decided to post it herself to thwart the blackmail attempt.

Around the same time, makeup guru James Charles’ Twitter was hacked and used to praise serial killer Ted Bundy. YouTube documentary sensation Shane Dawson’s Twitter account was also hijacked around the same time. The Twitter account of Smash personality Desmond “Etika” Amofa, who passed away in June, was also hacked.

While it’s never been proven if all of these big-name personalities were hacked by the same person as 2K, their hackers used the word “chuckling” in many of their posts.

In August, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had his own account hacked. The Chuckle Squad had declared themselves again, before posting antisemetic tweets on Dorsey’s Twitter. After looking into the issue, it was determined that the tweets were coming from Cloudhopper, the name of a company Twitter acquired a while back to “help bolster their SMS service.”

All of the aforementioned victims had their accounts breached following a SIM card swap at AT&T.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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