Happy Hour ended suddenly Friday night for Buffalo Wild Wings, as its official Twitter account was hacked, and racist, crude tweets spewed forth from the restaurant chain’s official feed for 20 minutes before the messages were deleted.
Below are screenshots of the messages. (Warning: The language contained in them is highly offensive.)
It is unclear at this time who hacked the Buffalo Wild Wings Twitter feed or how the digital vandals compromised the social media account’s security. It’s also uncertain if Buffalo Wild Wings employed two-factor authentication, a common security feature and best practice for locking down Twitter accounts. But if nothing else comes from this hot social media mess, it should serve as a reminder to other companies that may need to bolster their weak passwords.
Buffalo Wild Wings’ hacked Twitter account may be more embarrassing than a gob of barbecue sauce on a crisp white shirt — especially given the content of the tweets — but the restaurant chain is in good company among accounts that have been hacked and should have know better. Tech giants like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and former Twitter CEO Dick Costello have had their accounts compromised, and even the Big Mac got attacked when McDonald’s Twitter account was hacked, with a tweet going out calling Donald Trump ‘disgusting.’
Twitter notified us that our account was compromised. We deleted the tweet, secured our account and are now investigating this.
— McDonald's Corporation (@McDonaldsCorp) March 16, 2017
Fortune has reached out to Buffalo Wild Wings for comment, and a company spokesperson provided the following statement:
Buffalo Wild Wings’ Twitter account was hacked. We’re sorry that our fans had to see those awful posts, which obviously did not come from us. We are in touch with our Twitter representatives and will pursue the appropriate action against the individuals involved.
After the Buffalo Wild Wings’ hacked Twitter account was recovered, the company posted this tweet:
Well, we were hacked. And it wasn’t funny. We apologize for the awful posts, which obviously did not come from us.
— Buffalo Wild Wings (@BWWings) June 2, 2018
The popular beer-and-wings restaurant chain restaurant chain is owned by Arby’s Restaurant Group, which has since rebranded as Inspire Brands. Inspire’s three restaurant chains, Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s, and R Taco have more than 4,600 company-owned and franchised restaurants that earned more than $7.6 billion in 2017.
