Ford says Gaza-related posts caused by compromised social media account

Car maker says it is investigating unauthorised social content

Ford says its X account was briefly compromised, resulting in unauthorised posts. The company is investigating.

The Ford Motor Company said on Monday its social media account had been compromised after a series of pro-Palestine posts appeared on its X feed.

“Our X account was briefly compromised and the previous three posts were not authorised or posted by Ford,” a spokesman for the company said in response to inquiries from The National. “We are investigating the issue.”

Ford says it is investigating after the company's X account was compromised and three unauthorised posts appeared on its timeline related to Gaza, Palestine and Israel. Photo: X

The posts appeared within several minutes of each other and were quickly removed by the Dearborn, Michigan, company, which has more than 1.4 million followers on the X platform.

The posts read “all eyes on Gaza” and “free Palestine”, while another accused Israel of being a terrorist state. Many followers took screen-grabs of the posts and demanded answers from the company.

The company later posted a message on X reiterating that its socia media account had been compromised for several minutes and populated with various messages.

Several hours after the Gaza-related posts appeared on Ford's X timeline, the company explained that it was investigating how its social media account was compromised. Source: X

"They do not represent the views of Ford Motor Company," the post read in part.

The brief compromise of Ford’s X account comes amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. The war was prompted by a Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the kidnapping of about 250.

Israel’s response to the attack has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians and reduced large parts of the enclave to rubble.