YouTube executive’s Twitter account hacked to spread fake news

The account was hacked 20 minutes after the YouTube exec marked himself safe from the shooting.

One person was killed and four others were wounded in a shooting (AFP)

As Twitterati searched for news regarding the shooting at the YouTube headquarters in the US, hackers compromised a verified employee's Twitter account to spread fake news in the midst of the attack, a media report said.

According to a report by The Verge, a hacker hijacked the verified Twitter account of Vadim Lavrusik, who works as the Product Manager at the video sharing platform and used the profile to implicate a YouTube broadcaster in the shooting.

The hoax tweets reportedly began posting 20 minutes after the executive marked himself safe apparently while he was near the shooting site. The hoax tweets were reported several times and Twitter removed them shortly afterwards.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later said the company was "on it" and taking care of the situation.

"Even after Twitter executives became aware of the compromise, hoax tweets were still being regularly posted to Lavrusik's account, only to be instantly deleted," the report said.

One person was killed and four others were wounded in a shooting on Tuesday at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno in the US state of California. Police officer Ed Barberini said the suspect, a female shooter, appeared to have shot herself after injuring multiple people at the campus of the YouTube facility on Tuesday.

The shooting took place in an outdoor cafe at the YouTube campus which houses at least 1,700 employees.