The New South Wales Rugby League is investigating how a sexually explicit photo from a pornography account was retweeted from the official NSWRL account during Sunday night's NRL grand final.
The tweet went out to the account's 51,000 followers just before 9pm before it was deleted "within 60 seconds" according to a NSWRL spokesperson.
The NSWRL account immediately sent out an apology which said: "Sincere apologies for recent unusual activity - our account had been hacked. Normal service now resumed."
Sincere apologies for recent unusual activity - our account had been hacked. Normal service now resumed.— NSWRL (@NSWRL)
October 4, 2015
A user shared a screenshot of the original tweet which was picked up by others on Twitter, including Channel Nine commentator and Fairfax columnist Phil Gould who said "the account [was] obviously hacked".
A NSWRL spokesperson said they were investigating the tweet and were in talks with Twitter to try and ascertain whether foul play was involved, given it occurred on the biggest night of the rugby league calendar.
"It's something that we really didn't want to see on our feed and it's not something we've done, so we're investigating," the spokesperson said.
The original tweet from Pornhub was four days old, meaning there is a possibility it could have been spam.
Users who pointed out the NSWRL account's gaffe and questioned if it was a hack were blocked shortly after by NSWRL.
Whether it's a hack or not, it caused a stir on social media.
@Gus10Gould someone going to be in trouble whoevers Incharge of nswrl Twitter lol— mark (@drunkenchewybac)
October 4, 2015
@NSWRL pic.twitter.com/joHvn0uqrJ— Hannah Fay (@HanzyFay)
October 4, 2015
@NSWRL pic.twitter.com/cRS6wIjwc1— irish rooster (@el_presidente11)
October 4, 2015
@NSWRL then why did you block everyone that picked up on the error??— Mrs Hectik (@beckakate)
October 4, 2015
