A series of personal Twitter accounts belonging to Electronics Arts staff members were hacked into as part of a "targeted attack" and deleted after a popular YouTuber and FIFA player received a lifetime ban from official tournaments for "abusive, harassing, and vulgar" behavior.
Kurt Fenech, who also goes by the username "Kurt0411," is a prominent FIFA content creator and former pro player who was permanently banned from all future official FIFA events for repeatedly violating the code of conduct of a FIFA 20 tournament series. As EA has pointed out in its official notice of his banning, Fenech was found to be "posting or uploading materials that we have determined are abusive, harassing, and vulgar."
Not long after Fenech's ban, several members of the FIFA Community Management team had their Twitter accounts hacked with attackers displaying messages showing solidarity with Fenech. These posts included a photoshopped image of an official EA announcement along with a statement revoking Fenech's ban, and assertions that FIFA wouldn't "go anywhere" as an esport without him.
Fenech has been a vocal critic of recent FIFA titles. After receiving repeated warnings and even a suspension, the final straw came when Fenech referred to an opponent as a "son of a b---h" after he equalised against him during a livestream. "You can't beat me, even on this piece of trash game. F—k you, EA," he yelled before spitting on a scarf that had EA's logo stitched onto it.
The Twitter accounts of the EA staff members were deleted shortly after being hacked, the company said. "On Monday several EA Sports FIFA team members were made aware that their personal social media channels were compromised following targeted attacks on their accounts," EA said in its statement. "Employee safety is our first priority, so several staff have suspended or deactivated their channels."
EA's FIFA staff members have been at the receiving end of harassment, verbal abuse and even death threats on social media as the fans grow increasingly aggravated over the state of the game, which was further fueled by the release of FIFA 20, giving birth to the #FixCareerMode hashtag on Twitter.
