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Rudy Giuliani inadvertently created a hyperlink in a tweet last week, which resulted in another Twitter user creating a website with a succinct message about Giuliani's client, President Donald Trump. (Photo: screenshot)
Trump Lawyer and Cybersecurity Adviser Rudy Giuliani Accuses Twitter of 'Invading' His Account After Typing Error Results in Anti-Trump Website Link
"Giuliani spent 16 years as a security consultant and was originally brought on to the Trump team as a cybersecurity adviser. Be terrified."
Dec 04, 2018
Rudy Giuliani, who is serving as President Donald Trump's attorney as his legal troubles mount, claimed late Tuesday night that Twitter is behind conspiracy to "invade" his account. The false accusation came days after another user noticed that Giuliani had inadvertently created a hyperlink within a tweet last Friday, allowing the user to create a website with a message about Giuliani's presidential client.
A punctuation error in Giuliani's tweet regarding Michael Cohen's guilty plea and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 12 Russian agents last July resulted in a link to the domain name "G-20.In"--a website which did not exist until a user named Jason Velazquez saw Giuliani's mistake, quickly purchased the domain, and created a no-frills webpage containing only the statement "Donald J. Trump is a traitor to our country" and a link to a Reddit thread on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's cooperation with the Mueller probe.
The makeshift website quickly went viral, with nearly 50,000 Twitter users "liking" Giuliani's tweet and posting anti-Trump messages in the replies. The former New York City mayor reacted in outrage, claiming that the so-called "committed card-carrying anti-Trumpers" at Twitter had "allowed someone to invade" his tweet.
Giuliani's orginal tweet had included a second punctuation error, he reasoned, but that hadn't resulted in a link.
But as a number of critics pointed out, the G-20.in link was possible because .in is India's equivalent of .com--something a person hired as the president's cybersecurity advisor might have realized.
Velazquez told NBC News that he had simply seen Giuliani's inadvertent hyperlink as an opportunity to "do something funny" and that he has no contacts at Twitter who could have helped him to "invade" the attorney's tweet--which Twitter confirmed would be impossible even if Velazquez had been so inclined.
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Rudy Giuliani, who is serving as President Donald Trump's attorney as his legal troubles mount, claimed late Tuesday night that Twitter is behind conspiracy to "invade" his account. The false accusation came days after another user noticed that Giuliani had inadvertently created a hyperlink within a tweet last Friday, allowing the user to create a website with a message about Giuliani's presidential client.
A punctuation error in Giuliani's tweet regarding Michael Cohen's guilty plea and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 12 Russian agents last July resulted in a link to the domain name "G-20.In"--a website which did not exist until a user named Jason Velazquez saw Giuliani's mistake, quickly purchased the domain, and created a no-frills webpage containing only the statement "Donald J. Trump is a traitor to our country" and a link to a Reddit thread on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's cooperation with the Mueller probe.
The makeshift website quickly went viral, with nearly 50,000 Twitter users "liking" Giuliani's tweet and posting anti-Trump messages in the replies. The former New York City mayor reacted in outrage, claiming that the so-called "committed card-carrying anti-Trumpers" at Twitter had "allowed someone to invade" his tweet.
Giuliani's orginal tweet had included a second punctuation error, he reasoned, but that hadn't resulted in a link.
But as a number of critics pointed out, the G-20.in link was possible because .in is India's equivalent of .com--something a person hired as the president's cybersecurity advisor might have realized.
Velazquez told NBC News that he had simply seen Giuliani's inadvertent hyperlink as an opportunity to "do something funny" and that he has no contacts at Twitter who could have helped him to "invade" the attorney's tweet--which Twitter confirmed would be impossible even if Velazquez had been so inclined.
Rudy Giuliani, who is serving as President Donald Trump's attorney as his legal troubles mount, claimed late Tuesday night that Twitter is behind conspiracy to "invade" his account. The false accusation came days after another user noticed that Giuliani had inadvertently created a hyperlink within a tweet last Friday, allowing the user to create a website with a message about Giuliani's presidential client.
A punctuation error in Giuliani's tweet regarding Michael Cohen's guilty plea and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 12 Russian agents last July resulted in a link to the domain name "G-20.In"--a website which did not exist until a user named Jason Velazquez saw Giuliani's mistake, quickly purchased the domain, and created a no-frills webpage containing only the statement "Donald J. Trump is a traitor to our country" and a link to a Reddit thread on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's cooperation with the Mueller probe.
The makeshift website quickly went viral, with nearly 50,000 Twitter users "liking" Giuliani's tweet and posting anti-Trump messages in the replies. The former New York City mayor reacted in outrage, claiming that the so-called "committed card-carrying anti-Trumpers" at Twitter had "allowed someone to invade" his tweet.
Giuliani's orginal tweet had included a second punctuation error, he reasoned, but that hadn't resulted in a link.
But as a number of critics pointed out, the G-20.in link was possible because .in is India's equivalent of .com--something a person hired as the president's cybersecurity advisor might have realized.
Velazquez told NBC News that he had simply seen Giuliani's inadvertent hyperlink as an opportunity to "do something funny" and that he has no contacts at Twitter who could have helped him to "invade" the attorney's tweet--which Twitter confirmed would be impossible even if Velazquez had been so inclined.
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