[imagesource:andm.gov.za]

Folks working at an Eastern Cape municipality have been trying to stop the onslaught of pornographic videos being posted on its Facebook after some smart-a** hackers had their way with the platform.

The hackers have turned revenge porn into something else completely, splashing more than 40 explicit videos all over the Alfred Nzo District Municipality’s Facebook page.

Last week, the page boasted 22,000 followers, a number that has surged by 1,000 in recent days. Among the shocking X-rated videos, one has garnered a staggering 94,000 views.

All the while, the municipality technicians have not been able to delete the videos that are sitting there for all the world to see. One of the videos – safe for work, don’t worry – seems to be an ironic little wink and nudge from the hackers. The caption reads “New movie update clip: The lucky employee and the spoiled boss part 1” while showing a disorientating perspective of people running from a rising tide:

News24 notes that the municipality is headquartered at eMaxesibeni (formerly Mount Ayliff) with four local municipalities under it: Umzimvubu, Matatiele, Ntabankulu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Municipal spokesperson Lixolile Petela confirmed the page had been hacked on 22 April.

“The hacker is posting indecent and offensive material on the page,” said Petela who also noted that municipal technicians have been diligently tackling the “daunting challenge” of tracking down the hacker and reclaiming ownership of the page for the municipality.

“In the meantime, the municipality has reported the matter to Facebook via the application itself and through an email written directly to Meta [the platform’s parent company].

“It should be noted that Meta has a turnaround period of up to 21 days to resolve the matter and until that time, we are unable to remove the indecent material as the hacker has removed the municipality’s administrators from the page,” Petela said.

These hackers went deep. One has to wonder who is behind it and why they’re doing it. Is it a belittled ex of the boss? Or some angry citizen protesting the municipality?

“We understand that the content may be offensive to viewers and is equally frustrating for the municipality as it has tarnished the image of the institution. However, there is not much we have been able to do thus far,” Petela said.

“We hope for a speedy resolution of the matter by Meta.”

Until then, the municipality’s Facebook page, which should “enable [them] to communicate easily with stakeholders”, is now NSFW.

[source:news24]