A White House Instagram account tied to former US Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama‘s presidency, which hadn’t been active for years, suddenly began publishing unauthorised content over the weekend, including images of an Iranian general and AI-generated pictures. Fears of a potential breach were eventually confirmed by Meta, the social media giant’s parent company, when it revealed that the problem had been resolved.

Reports suggested that Obama’s long-dormant White House account was not the only Instagram handle targeted by hackers, as similarly suspicious content also surfaced on the profiles of Sephora and US Space Force Chief Master Sergeant John F. Bentivegna.

It remains unclear exactly how many other accounts the Meta hack affected.

Inactive Obama White House IG account hacked

Screenshots shared eventually showed that Instagram Stories associated with these accounts had been filled with pro-Iran propaganda. One such post plastered over Obama’s old White House account, which has 2.4 million followers, was an AI-generated photo. Its accompanying caption suggested that the presidential residence was under the “rule of Shiites.”

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Other receipts from the hacked Instagram account showed multiple Stories with pictures of Iranian general named Qasem Soleimani, as 404 Media reported earlier. Although the Barack Obama White House officially last shared a post in 2017 amid a presidential transition period, the hack introduced an additional AI-generated post on the profile’s feed, also setting it as the account’s display picture.

Meta responds to ‘pro-Iran’ AI hack

Responding to the security breach, Meta’s head of communications Andy Stone issued a statement on X, confirming, “This issue has been resolved and we are securing impacted accounts.”

At the time of writing, all traces of the previously visible suspicious content and Iranian propaganda had been erased from the Obama White House account, which has long been preserved as an archival of the Democratic leader’s presidency until 2017.

How were these high-profile Instagram accounts hacked?

Meta’s clarification took centre stage especially after researchers exposed the hack on social media. The Guardian reported that security experts and hacking groups shared videos and screenshots on Telegram, showing how to steal an account using Meta’s AI support assistant chatbot.

A clip amplified on X also appeared to show a hacker’s POV, as they told the chatbot to link an account to a new email address while using a virtual private network (VPN) to manipulate their location. Thereafter, the bot sends a prompt, confirming that a verification code has been sent to the mentioned email ID.

As soon as the user enters the code, the Meta AI bot replies, “Thank you. I’m about to send you a message containing an action to change your password. Once that’s done, you should be able to access your account. Let me know if you run into any issues.”

The steps followed in the process have merely lifted the lid on how easy it is to infiltrate someone’s account by simply tricking the Meta AI support assistant into believing that a password needs to be reset.

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The “Meta AI support assistant,” which decided to attack users instead of assisting them this week, was launched on Facebook and Instagram in March. Boasting the rollout in a news release titled, “Boosting Your Support and Safety on Meta’s Apps With AI,” Meta stated on March 19, 2026: “Today, we’re launching new AI tool support and content enforcement on our apps to make them work better for you. As technology advances, we’re applying AI in more ways so you can get reliable, action-oriented help when you need it, and we can catch more severe violations like scams faster and more accurately, with fewer over-enforcement mistakes.”

The company added, “When you have an account issue, you need a solution — not just a suggestion. The new Meta AI support assistant is designed to help resolve account problems for you from start to finish.” Noting that “getting support should be simple,” the built-in assistant would “take action for you on a growing set of requests directly within” Facebook and Instagram.

The list of actions openly mentioned included managing one’s privacy setting and resetting passwords, reporting scams, impersonation accounts, or problematic content; making it easier to see why your content was taken down, appeal options, and track what happens next; and updating profile settings.