Al Arabiya was able to regain control of its accounts on social media sites The accounts of Al Arabiya News Channel on the social networking websites Facebook and Twitter were infiltrated by unidentified hackers who posted false news that they attributed to the channel.
Hackers posted news about an explosion at a Qatari natural gas field that killed dozens of people. A story about a coup in Qatar was also published.
Hackers also posted a story reporting a series of explosions in the Syrian city of Tartus and another alleging that international observers had been shot on their way out of Homs.
Al Arabiya’s accounts on social networking accounts have been subjected to several hacking attempts by the Syrian Electronic Army for covering anti-regime demonstrations and exposing the brutality Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Al Arabiya website has been blocked in Syria while Al Arabiya and Al Hadath have been subjected to constant jamming.
Om March 27, hackers affiliated to Assad’s electronic army hacked the account of Al Arabiya English on Facebook, but it was restored a few hours later.
“This page has been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army,” read a message on the page which was accompanied by two long statements in Arabic and English in which Al Arabiya was criticized for its coverage of the Syrian revolution.
Al Arabiya’s Al Hadath channel was also subjected to constant jamming while it was running reports about Assad’s leaked emails. The six-part coverage of Assad’s inbox was later re-run on Al Arabiya News Channel, which has also been repeatedly jammed since the start of the Syrian revolution and had its frequency changed several times.
The mission of the Syrian Electronic Army runs parallel to that of the Syrian state army with the second eliminating the revolution on the ground and the first taking charge of the virtual world.
The electronic army targets website that expose the daily killing of innocent civilians at the hands of the Syrian regime and replaces anti-Assad stories with others that slam the revolutionaries.
The Syrian ElectronicArmy hacks blogs of Syrian activists where its members post statements and pictures praising the Syrian regime and Assad and threatens all blog owners and users who write comments in support of the Syrian revolution.