Stories

Matt Drudge claims the U.S. government tried to hack his site

Matt Drudge, founder of The Drudge Report, took to Twitter last week to accuse the U.S. government of "attacking" his conservative news site.

The alleged attack came the same day President Obama announced sanctions against Russia for its attempts to interfere in November's election. Drudge's top headline read "MOSCOW MOCKS OBAMA 'LAME DUCK" when the site fell.

Drudge's tweet was later deleted, but read:

Quote"Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT? Biggest DDoS since site's inception. VERY suspicious routing [and timing]."

The site went down around 7 p.m. and lasted for about 90 minutes, according to the International Business Times.

Why this matters: The Drudge Report has triple the average engagement for most news sites, and has one of the most loyal news audiences on the internet, according to Alexa data. It is the front page of the conservative internet, and claims tend to spread before fact-checkers can render verdicts.