Explained: How Twitter was hacked, what questions it raises

It was a bad day even by Twitter standards. In what is being dubbed as one of the “most brazen online attacks in memory”, the most powerful Twitter accounts in America were all tweeting about Bitcoins on Wednesday afternoon. It was a scam, of course, but one that got a social push from the biggest political and entertainment handles in the United States. Twitter tried to regain control and delete the messages, but some of the handles were posting similar messages even after that.

Among the affected names are former president Barack Obama, presidential hopefuls Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kanye West, tech stars Bill Gates and Elon Musk, as well as institutional handles like @Apple. As Twitter tried to regain control, verified handles across the world went mute for a while and were unable to tweet.