Hackers took over two billboards outside of Chicago to display vile, antisemitic messages including “death to Israel” — bizarrely trying to pin it on YouTube sensation MrBeast, who immediately got his lawyers involved.
Commuters heading home through the Chicago suburb of Northbrook — which has a large Jewish population — were horrified by the hateful display on Wednesday night, the first night of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
“F–k ISRAEL,” read one of the billboards, while the other said: “DEATH TO ISRAEL.”
Both were printed over a Palestinian flag above the message “paid for by MrBeast LLC” — something vehemently denied by the wildly popular YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson.
“MrBeast did not pay for this billboard,” his rep told Fox 32 Chicago.
“After being made aware of its existence, we contacted our attorneys and the authorities about how to have it immediately removed.”
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said that his phone started blowing up shortly after the “disgusting” and “intimidating” billboard messages appeared around 5:30 p.m.
“Where these signs are, it’s a community with a large Jewish population, and tonight is the beginning of the Jewish holiday Sukkot,” Schneider told Fox 32.
“Whoever did this had an intentionality about it that was clearly antisemitic.”
The congressman said he immediately contacted local law enforcement and reached out to the company that owns the billboard, OUTFRONT Media, to have the messages removed.
“It had to be a shock [to drivers],” Schneider said. “Someone said they had their kids in the car, their little kids, but old enough to read,”
called the billboard message “disgusting.” Getty Images
“You know, these are big billboard signs, and how do you explain that to a young person?”
By 7 p.m., the digital signs had been shut off by OUTFRONT Media. Investigators confirmed that the company was not responsible for the display, indicating that hackers were behind the offensive stunt.
“Company representatives worked quickly and collaboratively to remove the unauthorized messages from the electronic signage,” Northbrook village officials said in a statement.
OUTFRONT has launched its own internal investigation into the matter, the company said.
Northbrook police said the investigation is ongoing.