Elmo returns to X after hacked antisemitic outburst

Much-loved children’s TV character Elmo is back on X after his account was hacked to post a slew of antisemitic and racist messages.

Elmo, the cheerful red monster from “Sesame Street,” unleashed a torrent of hate speech earlier this week, calling for the extermination of Jews to his 650,000 followers.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind “Sesame Street,” said in a statement posted to Elmo’s account on Tuesday that his verified X account “was briefly hacked by an outside party, in spite of the security measures in place,” and that “we strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured.”

By Tuesday, the posts had been deleted, and Elmo appeared to be back to his normal warm and fuzzy self, posting that “Elmo loves you.”

The incident is the latest example of hate speech spreading on X, which was acquired in 2022 by billionaire Elon Musk, an intermittent ally of President Donald Trump. Musk’s overhaul of the platform’s rules, along with his outspoken support for right-wing political movements in the United States and Europe, has drawn sharp criticism for enabling the spread of disinformation and abuse.

Elmo’s outburst comes less than a week after Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok posted a series of antisemitic messages on X, including some glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Musk’s company xAI quickly removed the “inappropriate posts” and stated last week it had taken action to “ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” without providing further details.

X was already under investigation by EU regulators for violating the bloc’s social media rules due to a potential lack of safeguards against illegal content. French prosecutors also opened a criminal investigation into X last week over allegations that the platform manipulated its algorithms for the purposes of “foreign interference.”

“Thank you for being kind to Elmo and all the people in your neighborhood,” Elmo wrote Tuesday.