The red Muppet Elmo is the latest personality to be hacked, with someone taking over the character’s social media account, posting antisemitic and racist messages.

Sesame Workshop, the non-profit producers of “Sesame Street,” said on Monday, “Elmo’s X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. We are working to restore full control of the account,” The Associated Press reported.

The hack occurred on Elmo’s verified account, The New York Times reported. It came a week after X’s AI platform, Grok, posted antisemitic comments with the chatbot mirroring the “extremist views” of X users, the xAI said, according to the newspaper.

The hack of Elmo’s account happened over the weekend and showed antisemitic threats and references to Jeffrey Epstein, which were deleted, according to the AP.

The account, however, was still in the control of a Telegram user who claimed responsibility.

X was asked for comment from both the AP and The Washington Post, but did not provide one by Monday morning.

Elmo was created in 1979 and has gone viral over the past few years with what the Post called “uplifting social media messages calling for kindness.”

The character is said to be 3 and a half years old and teaches children about kindness and patience, The New York Times reported.

©2024 Cox Media Group