The pro-Assad hacking group Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) appear to have taken over the Twitter account of E! Online, using it to tweet a fake headline that said Justin Bieber had come out as gay.

The hack comes after similar attacks on the Twitter accounts of the AP and the Guardian.

Here's a screenshot of the E! Online Twitter account at the time of writing (update:the account has since been suspended):

Twitter

The Bieber story seems to shock a lot of E! Online's followers:

Twitter

Bieber's online fanbase is on the defensive:

Do not be alarmed: @eonline was hacked so the tweets about Justin were FAKE.

— Justin Bieber Army (@bieberarmy) May 4, 2013

We reached out to one alleged member of the SEA, known as Th3 Pr0, who told us that he was behind the attack (Business Insider interviewed Th3 Pr0 — who claims to be just 18 years old — last week).

Th3 Pr0 sent us this screen-grab that appears to show himself in the E! Online account:

via Th3 Pr0

It's not entirely clear why the Syrian Electronic Army would target an entertainment group like E! Online (or, for that matter, a pop star like Bieber).

When we asked Th3 Pr0, he sent us a link to this tweet:

The next target will be different... expect the "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here" #SEA #Syria #SyrianElectronicArmy

— SyrianElectronicArmy (@Official_SEA12) May 2, 2013

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