News agency suspends its photo department’s Twitter account after breach

Agence France-Presse’s photo account, which was hacked on Tuesday, shared grisly images of supposed drone victims. The account has been suspended.

The email from AFP communications chief Gaelle Charbonnier said:

“AFP’S TWITTER ACCOUNT @AFPPHOTO WAS PIRATED TODAY AT 17:45. Any documents or images posted on this account after 17:45 are NOT from AFP. AFP is taking all possible measures to restore the normal functioning of the account as soon as possible.”

Paris-based AFP, the oldest news agency in the world, sent the email to media outlets in North America around 1 p.m. ET. Around noon ET, the company tweeted from its main account:

It appears our @afpphoto Twitter account has been hacked. Recent photos posted are NOT ours. Unable to delete but working on it

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 26, 2013

The Twitter account has been suspended, but photos posted on the feed continue to circulate. For instance, one picture juxtaposes an image of the Obama family with that of several slain Pakistanis. The grisly photo claims the family was the victim of “Obama’s drones.” The accompanying email described it as: “A comparison between #Obama the family man, and his treatment of a family in Pakistan.”

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