But this wasn’t the usual virus-laden “check out my latest pics” attack that any Facebook user knows well – Sarkozy’s hacker had a distinctly political motive.
Late Sunday night, it appeared the French premier was abandoning his plans to run for re-election in 2012, as evidenced by a paragraph-long post on his Facebook page. The problem is, they weren’t Sarkozy’s words.
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Riddled with slangy misspellings and missing accents (which, in French, can completely alter the meaning of a word), the message stated en francais, “Dear compatriots, given the exceptional circumstances our country is experiencing, I have decided in my spirit and conscience not to run for office again at the end of my mandate in 2012.”
The status update was capped off with an invitation for all to a farewell party for the supposedly outgoing prez, to be held – someone clearly thought this through – on the expected date of the election in May 2012.
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The message was met with beaucoup de confusion and commotion. The more than 350,000 “friends” of Sarkozy received the shocking news in their inboxes, with many sharing and discussing it before Sarkozy himself got wind of the baseless broadcast. Within hours, he took down the announcement, posting one in his actual words this time, thanking the hacker for reminding him that “no system is infallible.”
Sarkozy shouldn’t be surprised by the hacking – after all, it happens to thousands of members each month – but he should be a bit taken aback by the hundreds of “likes” on his resignation post. (via ABC News)