Google Palestine site defaced to display political message

Google’s localized Palestine site has been defaced by hackers. The Hackteach group is taking credit for the breach.

A message posted to the site reads:

uncle google we say hi from palestine to remember you that the country in google map not called israel. its called Palestine

Earlier this year, Google updated its Palestinian search engine to display “Palestine” instead of “Palestinian Territories”. The company made the changes to fall in line with a UN change of status that re-classified Palestine as a non-member observer instead of an entity.

Update: A Google spokesperson provided the following statement to The Next Web:

Some users visiting google.ps have been getting redirected to a different website; Google services for the google.ps domain were not hacked. We’re in contact with the organization responsible for managing this domain name so we can help resolve the problem.

➤ Google Palestine

Headline image credit: John MacDougall / AFP / Getty Images