The hacker who claims to have compromised the Twitter account of right-wing commentator Matt Walsh last night says that he meant no harm—though he was clearly in a position to exact some. The whole purpose of the attack, he says, was to stir up controversy and sow chaos on Twitter.
If that was all he was after, well, mission accomplished.
Walsh’s account first appeared compromised Tuesday night after a series of out-of-character posts appeared on his feed. They included jabs at fellow conservative media figures, including colleague and Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro. In a tweet directed at Shapiro, the hacker, who goes by the alias Doomed, wrote: “You Know What You Did, You Are A Closeted Homosexual And Hide Behind Being Jewish.”
Other tweets included: “Joe Rogan Is A Pedophile,” and, “I Can Confirm Andrew Tate Kidnapped And R*ped Those Girls,” a reference to the former British kickboxer and controversial misogynist arrested in Romania last year on allegations of human trafficking.
Walsh, who hosts a Daily Wire podcast named after himself, has been frequently characterized as an “online troll.” He’s previously described himself as a “theocratic fascist,” claims to believe anime is “satanic,” and pushed for state executions of doctors who provide minors with gender-affirming care.
Due to his efforts to foment attacks against the LGBTQ community online and in media, denigrating trans people in particular as “groomers,” Walsh drew criticism more recently over a series of re-surfaced remarks, in which he refers to girls as young as 16 as being the “most fertile.”
“The intent was to make funny tweets, as Matt Walsh likes to ‘trigger’ people,” Doomed says, declining to be identified by name. “We caused no financial harm, threatened anyone, [nor] ruined anything.” It was merely, he says, “a few silly words on social media.”
A pinned tweet on Walsh’s profile, which was suspended a few hours after the hacks began, read: “My Pronouns Are That/N***a.”
The hack was accomplished, Doomed says, using a technique known as SIM swapping. The attack typically involves hackers tricking a cellular provider into switching a victim’s phone number to a SIM card the hackers control, rather than the one in the victim’s phone. Doomed, however, claims Walsh’s phone was compromised with the help of an “insider.”
In addition to his Twitter account, Walsh’s Google and Microsoft accounts appeared to have been compromised, granting Doomed unfettered access to right-wing host’s private emails.
Several screenshots were provided as proof of the intrusion, including an apparent copy of Walsh’s W2 tax form, which lists his employer as Bentkey Services, LLC, the publisher of the Daily Wire. (Business records list Shaprio as the company’s director.) Other images included a direct message on Twitter from Shapiro from 2017; emails between Walsh and the conservative commentator Steven Crowder, host of the Louder with Crowder podcast, dated March 2014; and a photo of Walsh holding up a paper dated November 2020—apparently used to authenticate some type of accompanying message.
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