Hacked New York Post app sends 'Heil President Donald Trump' alert in April Fool's Day prank

The New York Post has issued an apology after its app was hacked in an April Fool's Day prank and sent out a flurry of bizarre news alerts including one that read, "Heil President Donald Trump". The series of nine cryptic Post alerts sent out late Saturday (1 April) also included religious references and lyrics from Nirvana's hit song Come As You Are.

"Hear me now, for I speak as an angel in the words of God," the alerts read. "In casting truth into the darkness of your shadow, you have gravely sinned..."

"Open your heart to those you do not understand and listen to all those you fear and look down upon," the messages, which seemed to be directed at the US President, continued. "For the fate of your soul is soon to be decided."

The Nirvana lyrics read: "Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, but don't be late..."

The hacker, who has not been identified, signed off as "With Lucid Love, Selah."

The Post quickly apologised for the alerts on Twitter and via another mobile alert shortly after they were sent out.

"The push alert system for our mobile app was compromised this evening. Please accept our apologies," the Post tweeted early on Sunday.

However, social media users were quick to respond to the hack and tweeted screenshots of messages along with jokes over whether or not the app was actually hacked.

"Compromised. Yeah ok... wink wink," one Twitter user wrote.

In January, Axios reported that Trump receives hard copies of the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, which one source referred to as "the paper of record for him". President Trump has not mentioned the alerts in his tweets thus far.

In March, McDonald's said one of its official Twitter feeds was hacked after its corporate account sent out an anti-Trump tweet.

"@realDonaldTrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands," the tweet read before it was quickly deleted. Some Trump supporters, however, responded with calls to boycott the popular fast food chain using the hashtag #BoycottMcDonalds.

This isn't the first time hackers have targeted media outlets. In March, ABC News and Good Morning America's official Twitter accounts were hacked by pranksters who left a slew of explicit messages.

The same month, hackers posted Nazi symbols and messages in Turkish on hundreds of Twitter accounts including those of media outlets, global organisations and celebrities such as the BBC, Unicef, Amnesty International, Forbes, Justin Bieber's Japanese account and the UK Department of Health.

In January, the BBC said its Northampton account was hacked after it tweeted that Trump had been shot after his inauguration. The news outlet quickly took down the tweet and apologised for the same.