'Stranger Things' star apologizes after hacker posts racist tweets from his account

Stranger Things star Joe Keery has been forced to issue an apology after his Twitter account was hacked, and the infiltrators posted racists tweets in his name.

Keery, who plays Steve Harrington in the hit Netflix series, was targetted by the hacker on Saturday night. After his account was successfully infiltrated, a number of racist and insensitive tweets were posted, including messages about his Stranger Things costars and jokes about the N-word.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is the first look at Stranger Things season four:  

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One of the tweets said that Keery was molested on the set of Stranger Things; in another, he said he had coronavirus, and one said he was "going to meet Juice WRLD," who died of an overdose in 2019, per Popcrush.

Since then, the hacker's tweets have been deleted, and the 27-year-old has taken to his Twitter account to apologize to his 1.2 million followers.

"Hey everyone, I was hacked as I'm sure everyone knows," he wrote.

"What a bummer that someone would go to such great lengths to spread hate. I want to apologize for the horrible comments that were posted, it was deeply upsetting to me. Much love to you all in these crazy times."

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In response to the apology, one fan wrote: "Sorry about everything that happened you didn't deserve that."

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Another remarked: "Hi Joe I'm so sorry you had to deal with that… what they said was very disturbing but we all know it could have never been you. I hope you stay safe both physically and online!"

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Meanwhile a third, who was presumably joking, wrote: "I thought you were just flying off the handle tbh."

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The release date for the fourth season of Stranger Things has yet to be announced. However, because production has been halted because of the coronavirus pandemic, it will likely not be released until 2021.