Chipotle Twitter hackers send out volley of racist and homophobic abuse

The Mexican restaurant chain has apologised for the security breach

Mexican-food chain Chipotle will soon invade London (Getty Images)

Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle has apologised for a barrage of racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic tweets sent by hackers who took over its official account.

The chain’s main US feed @ChipotleTweets had its picture replaced with a Nazi swastika on Sunday morning as the ranting started.

“We are now in full support of the Nazi Party,” one tweet read. “F*** that n***** Obama!”

Another post claimed that all the chain’s restaurants worldwide would be closing on 31 December because the meat was “poisoned”.

How Chipotle's account appeared during the hack (Twitter)

A volley of abuse was launched at Chipotle’s followers, using homophobic and racist slurs including “f**”, “f*****” and “P**i” and telling people to “blow yourself up”.

In an apparent bid to be anti-establishment, one tweet read: “F*** the American government, they are nothing but frauds and bullies, f*** the NSA, f*** the FBI, f*** the CIA, you are all garbage.”

All the tweets have now been deleted and an apology was sent from the account.

“We apologise for the very offensive messages sent out from our account earlier tonight,” it said. “We were unfortunately hijacked temporarily.”

Twitter users mainly seemed confused about why the restaurant chain had been targeted, especially on a Saturday night (US time).

“Why would someone hack Chipotle’s twitter?” one person asked. “What did Chipotle ever do to you except supply delicious burritos and inspirational cups?”

People were confused about why the company was targeted (Chipotle)

In 2013, Mashable reported that the chain had orchestrated a fake hack as part of a publicity stunt around its 20th anniversary.

Seemingly random tweets were apparently meant as clues in a puzzle about the ingredients in its guacamole.

Chris Arnold, a Chipotle representative, told Mashable the stunt was not meant to be “harmful or hateful or controversial”.

Responsibility for the latest incident was apparently claimed by two Twitter accounts, @TUGFeds and @TheCeltic666, which have since been suspended.

“Our Twitter account was hijacked overnight for about two hours during which a series of offensive tweets was posted to the account,” a spokesperson for Chipotle said.

“We apologise for the nature of the posts that were made during that time, and we are now conducting an investigation to try to determine what happened and who might have been involved.”