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Fast Company shuts website after hack sends 'obscene' Apple News notifications

FILE PHOTO: Man holds laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture

(Reuters) -U.S. business and media publication Fast Company said it shut down its website on Tuesday evening after the site was hacked and sent "obscene and racist" notifications to Apple users via the iPhone maker's Apple News service.

News publishers using the Apple News aggregation app can connect their digital publishing tools to Apple News to send push notifications to Apple customers who subscribe to the publisher's channel. Fast Company said hackers broke into those publishing tools.

Hackers sent two "obscene and racist push notifications" about a minute apart, Fast Company said in a tweet, adding it had suspended the Apple News feed until the situation was resolved.

"We are investigating the situation and have suspended the feed & shut down FastCompany.com until we are certain the situation has been resolved," the publication added.

Fast Company's website was down and the page displayed a 404 error when viewed by Reuters on Tuesday evening.