Last Saturday, on March 19th, Florida’s Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried’s Twitter account was hacked by a Crypto Currency group that used her account to sell Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTS). NFTS are digital items backed by a blockchain that creates value without any ties to physical currencies like gold. While the account was hacked, the pinned tweet was changed to an NFT store of Skulltoons NFTS. Skulltoons NFTS are digital pictures backed by the blockchain and have the same style of skulls or skeletons that are in numerous images.

Although this social media incident occurred only for a few hours, the tweets were taken down quickly after the incident and the account was restored back to Fried. After the hacking was over, Fried tweeted, “In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have taken that phishing trip. Now, what have I missed.”

While the cause of this hacking is unknown, it is assumed that the hack could have evolved through Fried’s openness to donations from cryptocurrency, with has many security risks. This may have given hackers access to critical information about the campaign, such as campaign funds and finances.

As it’s election year in Florida, access to Twitter and social media would be beneficial to candidates in reaching out to the public. That is something that Fried, a gubernatorial candidate, is trying to achieve along with other candidates. While Fried is currently running for Governor of Florida, this Twitter hack could affect the election and some people’s views on Fried.

Although this hacking did not affect many people, there have been many reactions from the public. Christina Pushaw, the Press Secretary for Governor Ron DeSantis, tweeted, “I knew Nikki Fried’s fundraising numbers were bad but didn’t think she would get this desperate.” State Senator Annette Taddeo, who is also in the Florida Governor race for the Democratic nomination, tweeted, “PSA: I’m not taking donations in crypto.” After tweeting her joke about the situation, Taddeo also linked her campaign donation site.

This incident could be a significant setback for the Fried Gubernatorial campaign. Fried has been suffering in campaign funding, the frontrunner Charlie Crist is leading fundraising with $3.3 million, while Fried is struggling to gain $1.6 Million. As Nikki Fried puts it, “Obviously we have room to grow, and that’s what we’re doing.”