Dozens of Twitter accounts were hacked Wednesday in an apparent large-scale cyber-attack. Many of the hacked posts were in Turkish and featured a swastika and the hashtags #Nazialmanya and #Nazihollanda. Among the affected Twitter accounts were the European Parliament, UNICEF USA, BBC North America and boxer Floyd Mayweather’s promotional account. The messages called the hacking a “little Ottoman slap” and said "See you on April 16" — the date of a referendum in Turkey on stronger powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A video in the tweet featured various speeches by Erdogan. More:Do this one thing to protect yourself on Twitter BBC North America tweeted that it "temporarily lost control" of its account, but "normal service has resumed." "We are aware of an issue affecting a number of account holders this morning," Twitter said in a statement. "Our teams are working at pace and taking direct action on this issue. We quickly located the source which was limited to a third party app. We removed its permissions immediately. No additional accounts are impacted. Advice on keeping your account secure can be found here," it said. UNICEF USA confirmed its Twitter account was hacked and said it was "deeply concerned that our social media platforms would be used to promote hate speech." "The offensive tweet has been removed. We are investigating the matter and working to ensure it does not happen again," the organization said in a statement. The attack was apparently launched via a vulnerability in the Twitter Counter third party app, tech website Gizmodo reported. Twitter Counter, which was founded in the Netherlands and offers statistics and analytics services, tweeted: "We're aware that our service was hacked and have started an investigation into the matter. We've already taken measures to contain such abuse." Twitter acknowledged an issue tied to a third-party app was affecting a "small number of users," but did not specify if it was connected to this hack. Twitter also said the issue has been fixed. The hack came amid a diplomatic spat between Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands, after Dutch and German officials barred Turkish ministers from campaigning in parts of their countries. Those actions led Erdogan to say "Nazism is alive" in the West. Erdogan wants the voting power of Turks living in European countries to help him win next month's referendum. Turkey barred the Dutch ambassador from the country Monday, and denied Turkish airspace to diplomatic flights from the Netherlands. More: Why more of us suddenly care about the Dutch election
Dozens of major Twitter accounts including the European Parliament and BBC North America have been targeted in an apparent cyber attack by Turkish hackers. Many of the posts were in Turkish and featured a swastika and hashtags #Nazialmanya and #Nazihollanda. Messages included "See you on April 16", the date of a controversial Turkish referendum on greater powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has caused a diplomatic spat between Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands. The hack attack was apparently launched through a weakness in third-party app Twitter Counter. Twitter later tweeted that the issue had been resolved.