A 22-year-old man in Spain was arrested in connection with last year’s incident

A 22-year-old man was arrested in Spain on Wednesday in connection with the incident. Hacking of more than 100 Twitter accounts Last July, he became the fourth person charged in the incident that led to the temporary shutdown of the social media service.

The Justice Department said that Joseph O’Connor faces charges of hacking, extortion and cyberstalking in the US for Twitter breach and hacking of Snapchat and TikTok accounts.

The Twitter hack started last year when hackers connected to an online forum and focused on buying and selling rare usernames. They then hacked into Twitter systems by tricking employees into providing login information. Hackers used an administrative tool to hijack accounts of political figures and celebrities, including former President Barack Obama, Kanye West, and Elon Musk, using the accounts to commit a Bitcoin scam.

Graham Ivan ClarkAn 18-year-old, whom prosecutors say was the “brain” of the Twitter hack, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in Florida court in March and agreed to serve three years in juvenile jail. Two others, Mason Sheppard and Nima Fazeli, were arrested and charged with brokering Mr. Clark to sell their Twitter account.

Mr. O’Connor was a well-known figure among hackers dealing with usernames, who went by the name “PlugWalkJoe”. By chat logs shared by hackers O’Connor briefly interacted with the group with The New York Times last July and took the Twitter username @6.

At that time, Mr. O’Connor denied involvement in the Bitcoin scam. “I don’t care,” he said in an interview. “They could arrest me. I’d laugh at them. I didn’t do anything.”

According to an affidavit submitted by an agent affiliated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigating the breach, Twitter logs showed that a Twitter account belonging to Mr. O’Connor had displayed several accounts as if he was shopping at the time of the hack.

Mr O’Connor, who is British, faces extradition to the United States and will be charged in Northern California. Mr. O’Connor’s lawyer could not be immediately identified. Twitter declined to comment.