Here’s a reminder to delete old tweets or refrain from buying other people’s Twitter accounts for followers sake.
Malaysia’s media authority was put on blast last night after eight-year-old tweets riddled with profanities resurfaced online and led to people accusing it of acquiring someone else’s Twitter account without scrubbing its past.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, or MCMC, has since deleted its account and blamed hackers for those rowdy old tweets, some of which said “F*ck you, baldy” and “Just go on lah, pig,” and had responses from people who were referring to the account as “@NazrulllHakim.”
But the internet never forgets and neither did the man who originally owned MCMC’s Twitter. Nazrul Hakim, 22, told Coconuts today that he sold the account some time in 2014, but didn’t know at that time that it would be acquired by a government agency.
“I had about 50,000 followers on the account when I was in high school,” he said. “I sold it for RM1,300 (US$320). As a teenager, it felt great to have a bit of pocket money but I did not know that MCMC would be using the account.”
Nazrul also jumped onto Twitter yesterday to apologize for the nasty things he said in the past that were not deleted from the MCMC account.
“I apologize for the things I said in the past. The tweets were old and I don’t even remember what happened. It was 7 years ago. It’s my fault the tweets were there. I apologize to everyone involved,” he wrote last night.
Some of his old tweets also hinted at an angst-filled teenage romance.
“Why didn’t you apologize before we broke up?” one read, and another said: “Why is this person so cute? Don’t make me melt.”
MCMC did not admit that it had bought its account. In yesterday’s statement, they pointed fingers at hackers and urged people not to circulate the old tweets they said were “suspicious messages.”
“The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission would like to inform everyone that our official Twitter account @SKMM_MCMC has been hacked,” the statement said. “Hence the account has been suspended.”
“Please do not forward suspicious messages from the account that is NOT written by MCMC,” it added.
Thousands who commented on the incident found the whole thing highly amusing.
“All we wanna know is WHAT HAPPENED TO MCMC AND IKHMAL,” @Penatbuttercup wrote.
“Not mcmc taking over an old twitter account and not bothering to delete the old tweets,” @Malaymango chimed in.
Other stories to check out:
Malaysian doctor deletes stigmatizing COVID-19 tweets that said ‘homosexual habits cause AIDS’
