This teenage Iraqi hacker held a British newspaper hostage... for Instagram followers

First, he called on his "Arab people", then he told them to follow him on Instagram and Snapchat...

2 min read

The New Arab

18 Aug, 2017

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Iraqi teenager hacked The Independent to ask for followers [Twitter]

The Facebook account of British newspaper The Independent was hacked after midnight on Thursday. Followers began to notice something was wrong when a profile image of the Iraqi flag after the Gulf War was put up.

They sat and waited to see what would happen next. There are countless motives to hack a newspaper and it could be done by anyone.

However, in this instance, it turns out, the hacker was an Iraqi teenager who hijacked the newspaper’s page to merely get more Instagram and Snapchat followers on his own account.

Facebook Post

Iraqi social media personality Mahmood Jumaa trolled The Independent following in both Arabic and English, calling on his "Arab people," some of whom found the situation hilarious.


Translation: Where are they? This is a call to the Arab base where are you all?

I mean, what could possibly be more important than more social media followers, right?

— Yassine (@VagabondFocus) August 17, 2017 " style="color:#fff;" class="twitter-post-link" target="_blank">Twitter Post

So apparently the Facebook page of the British online newspaper The @Independent got hacked. The dude started promoting himself. 😂 pic.twitter.com/j8qJbrlAVk
— Yassine (@VagabondFocus) August 17, 2017