Update: The fake Tweets, which were up for about half a day, have finally been removed from Fox News' politics Twitter feed.
This incredibly sick prank can't be blamed on Fox News, but it figures they'd be the vehicle for it: Early this morning, hackers broke into the Fox News politics feed on Twitter and sent out messages saying that President Barack Obama had been assassinated. Fortunately, our president is safe and sound, and scheduled to take part in Independence Day festivities.
The hackers broke into the broadcaster's Fox News Politics account at around 2 a.m. and posted several messages that President Obama had been shot and killed while campaigning in Iowa.
"@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead," the first post said.
Moments later, the hackers wrote that Obama had been "shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out."
After three more rapid-fire tweets, including one that said Obama had been killed at "Ross' Restaurant in Iowa," the hackers signed off by wishing Vice President Joe Biden luck as the country's new president.
"In such a time of madness, there's light at the end of tunnel," the hoaxsters wrote.
Source: the New York Daily News.
A screenshot of the fake tweets, posted by the Daily News, is below. A group of hackers named the Script Kiddies appears to have claimed responsibility, according to BBC News. Fox News said it has alerted the Secret Service and said it regretted "any distress the false tweets may have created."
Read more at the Daily News.
In other news: Michael Eric Dyson: Constitution Has Been 'Hijacked.'
Sheryl Huggins Salomon is senior editor-at-large of The Root and a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based editorial consultant. Follow her on Twitter.