In brief
- Elmo’s official X account was hacked Sunday and was used to post antisemitic and racist messages, prompting swift condemnation.
- Sesame Workshop confirmed the breach, calling the posts “disgusting” and blaming an unknown hacker.
- The incident comes amid broader concerns about rising antisemitism and X’s failure to regulate hate speech.
Social media platform X drew further criticism over the way it moderates hate speech on Sunday after an official account belonging to Sesame’s Elmo spewed out antisemitic and violent messaging.
Sesame Workshop, the company behind Sesame Street, attributed the outburst to an “unknown hacker.”
“Elmo’s X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” a spokesperson told CNN on Monday. “We are working to restore full control of the account.”
This is a real tweet from the Elmo X account. It has since been deleted.
We’re dealing with depraved immoral sociopaths who target even a beloved children’s character in order to incite violence and hate against Jews. pic.twitter.com/Z6xezjuRfA
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) July 13, 2025
It comes just a week after Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok launched into a hate-filled tirade on X. While that incident was reportedly due to a specific system prompt update—later rolled back— the two events reveal underlying issues plaguing the platform.
In Elmo’s case, among the posts were calls for violence against Jewish people and demands for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Both incidents have sparked condemnation and renewed concerns over X’s weak security measures and ongoing failure to control hate speech.
“The Elmo hack was the icing on the cake at the end of a very strange weekend,” an X user wrote.
“I think the reaction many people had to Elmo’s Twitter feed getting hacked is to wonder why Sesame Street thought it was appropriate for Elmo to have a feed on this Nazi hellsite at all,” Musk biographer Seth Abramson wrote. “You could argue that this hack was as predictable as Sesame Street having a letter of the day.”
While the offensive posts were quickly deleted, screenshots continued to circulate online.
The non-profit Anti-Defamation League condemned the incident in a statement posted to X, calling the hack a disturbing example of how hate can infiltrate social media.
“It’s appalling that [Elmo’s] official X account, known for spreading kindness, was hacked yesterday solely to spread violent antisemitism,” the Anti-Defamation League wrote. “Antisemitism on social media fosters the normalization of anti-Jewish hate online and offline, and contributes to an increasingly threatening environment for Jewish people everywhere.”
The incident comes amid a surge in antisemitism online.
An April 2025 report by the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. have soared 893% over the past decade.
In a separate February report, the American Jewish Committee reported that 69% of Jewish adults have experienced antisemitism online or on social media.
Los Angeles-based global Jewish human rights organization, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, meanwhile, has given X a “D” grade based on a list of criteria, including terms of service, oversight board, violent extremism policy, and transparency, among others.
X and the Sesame Workshop did not respond to Decrypt’s requests for comment.
Generally Intelligent Newsletter
A weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model.
