Brian Houston, a founder of Australian megachurch Hillsong, has caused a stir for users of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by announcing his account was hacked after it shared a, shall we say, interesting, post to the site.
In the late hours of Tuesday night, the X account used by the founding pastor of Hillsong shared a tweet that read as follows:
“Ladies and girls kissing.”
The tweet was shared to the world at 11:41pm on February 20, and was displayed on Houston’s account for 16 minutes before being removed.
The great author Ernest Hemingway famously challenged himself to come up with a story that only consisted of six words.
Yet this post from Brian Houston’s account has blown Hemingway’s record out of the water, by effectively telling a much more thought provoking and intriguing story in two less words.
Because this tweet posed so many questions, such as: “What is Brian Houston doing?” with users quick to assume the worst of the Pentecostal pastor.
However after 16 minutes of exposure, the post was deleted, and another tweet replaced it.
I think my twitter may have been hacked
— Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) February 20, 2024
Three minutes before the clock struck midnight, Houston appeared to be back in control of his account to provide some much needed clarification on the recent post.
Claiming simply “I think my Twitter may have been hacked”, the 70-year-old put a stop to any questions about the purity of his character.
And opened the flood gates for more questions like, how did Brian get his account back so fast? And why did the hacker only post four words and do nothing else?
Or even, did the hacker think they were entering something into a search bar but didn’t know what they were doing because they’re clueless about technology (as hackers are)?
Further clarity was provided to the followers of Houston when he retweeted a post from another account, featuring a note written by one of Houston’s assistants.
According to the member of Houston’s team, the pastor had his account logged into by someone in America, who took the opportunity to post a four word tweet, and did nothing else.
@BrianCHouston pic.twitter.com/qVFUu6KZME
— Yolanda Ontiveros (@YolandaOnt62683) February 21, 2024
They also stated that nobody should respond to any messages from Brian Houston, as he does not contact people privately.
So next time someone claiming to be Brian Houston comes knocking at your door, it’s not him.
This is the second instance this year of a high profile figure coming forward to say their X account was hacked after a spicy post was shared, with former MP Craig Kelly‘s account retweeting porn earlier in February.
