The Twitter account of the Senate of Bolivia was hacked on Tuesday, May 8, for a brief period of time, minutes in which a statement was published that lamented the death of President Evo Morales.
The news, of course, was false, fake news.
Morales was alive and well on Tuesday, in Costa Rica attending the inauguration of Carlos Alvarado as president.
This may explain why Evo Morales made a wuick exit from Costa Rica, and not related to te mob surrounding his vehicle outside the Teatro Nacional.
The hack was reported at 2:28 p.m. Bolivia is two hours ahead of Costa Rica. Morales’ sudden departure from the Teatro Nacional was at about that time.
#LoÚltimo Hackean cuenta de Twitter del Senado para “lamentar” la muerte del presidente @evoespueblo.
El mensaje de @SenadoBolivia ya fue borrado y la cuenta recuperada. pic.twitter.com/1PP7s7qHZj— ATB (@ATBDigital) May 8, 2018
“We regret the death of our President Evo Morales, our condolences to his family and those closest to him,” said the message published on the Senate’s profile shortly before 4:00 p.m. and which quickly went viral in the social network.
The spokespersons of the Bolivian upper house immediately denied the report and assured that the hack was only for ‘five minutes’.
???? #Comunicado oficial del @SenadoBolivia pic.twitter.com/oDY1SqJ9WG
— Senado de Bolivia (@SenadoBolivia) May 8, 2018
“We informed the general public and the media that the official Twitter account of the Senate of the Plurinational State of Bolivia @SenadoBolivia was hacked for a period of 5 minutes,” Bolivian authorities said in a statement.
“According to internal reports and follow-up work that was done, they tried to enter the page from 3:39 p.m. today (…) In that period of time, they managed to make two publications, they are false and do not correspond to the institution. We appreciate your understanding in time to inform you that the full administration of the account has been recovered,” the statement said.