The Saudi news network, Al Arabiya said Monday that their English Facebook page has been hacked. The news organization issued this statement about recent posts and of the matter:
“Posts on the page surrounding the conflict in Syria have provided our readers with what is believed to be false news on attacks in Syria and deceptive information on Saudi government orders.
The posts included news about clashes between the Free Syria Army and the Syrian regime security forces, which Al Arabiya cannot verify.
The news is being falsely attributed to Al Arabiya sources.
The posts by hackers appear in Arabic on Al Arabiya English Facebook page and have confused our fans who normally expect the latest news on the Middle East in the English language”
Syria has been accusing many different news organizations from the Middle East and the West, saying that they have been overdramatic on the facts of the Syrian humanitarian crisis and of what actually happens. Syria has also called the said news organizations have bias against Syria and its government for the events that have been happening in the country.
In this latest hack, it appears that the people that hacked the page have been releasing photos and writing that is in Arabic describing the Syrian government’s attack on Homs. It is unknown whether the photos are authentic or not. As of right now, the news network still does not have control of its Facebook page and most of the page’s followers do not appear to know that it has been hacked. The hacking started four hours ago and has been continually releasing photos and statements about the Syrian government and its brutal attacks.
We believe that the hackers are not trying to be menacing or make an example out of Al Arabiya, they are probably trying to spark action by English speaking countries such as the West into intervening and taking out the government for its murdering of its own citizens. It is unclear as to what the hackers are posting in Arabic on the Facebook page but we bet it just describes the chaos and details why the West should get involved into a Libya type situation.
However, we take it a step further.
Saudi Arabia wants the Assad regime in Damascus to fall, while Iran is doing everything to help the Government survive. We also think this might be an Iranian attack. Our expert on Iran, has noted that the annimosity between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is far worse than the media reports. We noted months ago, that Saudi Arabia was arming the Syrian rebels, and Iran was arming the Assad regime. This was only recently confirmed by major media sources.
Additionally, Iran has on several occassions kicked out Al Arabiya reports for “unfair reporting.” Iran closed the news agency in 2009, as a result of the news organization’s coverage of the Green revolution.
So far there has been no response to the Facebook hacking as the news network trying to desperately regain control of their page and expel the hacker’s posts. It will be interesting to see what steps are taken next. Also it will be interesting to see whether or not this sparks some sort of “Kony 2012” type of response.
