TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa police are investigating after Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn's Twitter account was hacked early Thursday morning.
Less than two weeks before the mayoral election and months before Buckhorn leaves office, hackers took to Buckhorn's Twitter account to tweet racist and pornographic content.
Among the tweets, the hackers threatened the City of Tampa staff, Tampa International Airport and the Tampa VA office.
The Tampa Police Department said the threats are not credible and that detectives are working to determine who is behind the "despicable messages."
Airport Police are aware of hackers who made threats against the airport via the Tampa mayor’s twitter account. Police do not believe the threats are credible but are taking appropriate action to ensure the safety of TPA. Operations for passengers are normal at this time.
— Tampa Intl Airport ✈️ (@FlyTPA) February 21, 2019
The Communications Director for the Mayor and the City of Tampa released the following statement after the incident:
Earlier this morning we noticed someone hacked Mayor Buckhorn's twitter account, this was clearly not Mayor Buckhorn. Upon noticing the hack we immediately began investigating these reprehensible tweets. We will work with our Tampa Police Department as well as all investigators to figure out how this breach was made. We urge residents to change their passwords and continue to alert officials when they see an unlikely change in account activity. We are working with law enforcement to investigate all threats made by this hack.
Mayor Buckhorn has been made aware of the hack.