The New York Post said Thursday that an employee was responsible for several vulgar posts on its website and Twitter account. Variety reports that the employee has been fired.

The posts were made early Thursday morning and featured a variety of racist, sexist and falsehoods connected to several notable politicians.

In a statement to Variety, a representative for the Post said "The New York Post's investigation indicates that the unauthorized conduct was committed by an employee, and the employee has been terminated. This morning, we immediately removed the vile and reprehensible content from our website and social media accounts."

The posts included several fake headlines accompanied by photos and links that did not lead to articles.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post is a tabloid newspaper noted for its racy headlines, but observers quickly noticed that the fake posts were atypical of the publication.

One of the posts included an obscenely vulgar headline referencing New York's two gubernatorial candidates, leading incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul's office to demand an explanation.

In April the Post published a false story claiming copies of a children's book written by Vice President Kamala Harris were given to migrant children at the taxpayer's expense. The reporter who published the story resigned, claiming she was ordered to run the false story.

The Post's Twitter account currently has 2.8 million followers, and its websites garner over 80 million unique monthly visitors according to Airship.com, a marketing and branding service.

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