FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

A Congressional Debate Was Hacked to Show Gay Porn

A forum featuring candidates for California’s 1st District Congressional seat was rudely interrupted by porn “pranksters.”
Image via Shutterstock

Citizens of northeast California who tuned in to an online forum broadcast got a good look at something they weren’t expecting: Several seconds of men fuckin’.

Local news outlet KRCR reported that during the 8 p.m. broadcast—which was meant to be a discussion between two of the candidates for the state’s 1st District Congressional seat—the feed was interrupted by gay porn.

The hack happened immediately after opening statements from the two candidates present, Green Party candidate Lewis Elbinger and democrat David Peterson. The forum was also aired on radio station KFOI 90.9 FM. As constituents are scattered across the district’s 11,005 square miles, an online and radio broadcast discussion seemed like a good way to reach as many people as possible—if only it hadn’t taken a sudden, salacious turn.

According to KRCR, moderator Chris Verrill could be heard saying, “Looks like we got hacked again, we’ll try to fix this,” and then the feed was cut entirely.

Despite KRCR’s account of the events, which makes it sound like the organizers have a recurring gay porn hacker problem on their hands, Verrill told me in a Facebook message that this was the first time this has happened. “This was Independent Like the North State’s first candidate forum,” he said. “We remain committed to bringing Republicans and Democrats together to find common ground.”

The organization is planning to reschedule the forum, he said, after they’ve resolved the security issue. “It’s disappointing that some pranksters disrespected the democratic process,” Verrill wrote in a Facebook post. “But the North State is a great community and we won’t let a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel.”