Sexually explicit tweets sent from the Fort Bragg authorized garrison account were not the work of hackers. Rather, they were sent by an account administrator who had access and authority to send social media messages according to a statement from XVIII Airborne Corps that out any hacking of the account. 

“This morning, at the initiation of an investigation into yesterday’s incident regarding inappropriate tweets on the Fort Bragg Twitter account, an administrator for the account identified himself as the source of the tweets,” said XVIII Airborne Corps spokesman Col. Joe Buccino. “Appropriate action is underway. The Fort Bragg account will be restored in the coming days.”

The statement reverses the information that the command had rushed out Wednesday. Initially, XVIII Airborne Corps officials had said at 5:20 p.m. that “a string of explicit Tweets” was because the base’s Twitter account had been hacked. 

The garrison’s Twitter account, which has more than 58,000 followers, was taken offline after several users spotted several inappropriate tweets from the official @FtBraggNC to an OnlyFans user @quinnfinite10 who had posted nude pictures. The many comments obviously got the attention of senior officials at the base. 

OnlyFans is a British subscription service with sexually-explicit material. It is based in London and frequently used by those working in the sex industry.

The garrison’s account had commented approvingly on one photo and appeared to make fun of those who disliked female pubic hair in another. The tweets were later deleted.

“As many of you may know, there were a string of explicit Tweets from our account this afternoon. This was not the work of our admins. Our account was hacked. We apologize to our followers. We have secured our account and (sic) looking into the matter,” they had quickly posted. 

It isn’t known if the authorized user, who was commenting on pictures of a sexually-explicit website, was military or a civilian. 

The tweets, although deleted, were screenshotted and shared everywhere as the story caught fire very quickly. The Army and the XVIII Airborne Corps denied that the Army was engaged in a coverup. 

“We were operating off the information… from an initial inquiry,” the base account tweeted. “We humbly apologize.”

The military has recently been reeling from a series of social media posts made by military members that portray it in a poor light.  

In August, Army 2nd Lt. Nathan Freihofer, who is considered a TikTok “influencer” with 2.9 million followers, was placed under investigation for making anti-semitic remarks. He told an off-color Holocaust joke in very poor taste while snapping off a Nazi salute. What made it worse was that Freihofer posted the video while in uniform. An investigation was launched by XVIII Airborne Corps of which he is a member. TikTok is a Chinese social media platform.

In early October,  Marine Corps PFC Jarrett Morford had gone on an anti-Chinese tirade, blaming them for the coronavirus pandemic. He ranted: “Ch–nk-headed motherf—-r comes up to me when I’m in the fleet, say five-five six b–ch. That’s all I gotta say. Say five-five f–king six.” (5.56 refers to the caliber of the M-4 carbine that Marines and soldiers carry).