Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin speaks at a dinner celebrating former U.S. president Ronald Reagan on the centennial of his birth, at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California on February 4, 2011. UPI/Jim Ruymen | License Photo

CARNEGIE, Pa., June 14 (UPI) -- Sarah Palin fans, in an apparent act of revenge, jammed the Twitter feed of a Pennsylvania company that posted all of her e-mails, company officials say.

Crivella West Inc., a litigation research company in Carnegie that partnered with MSNBC on the project, got all 24,199 Palin e-mails on line 12 hours after the state of Alaska released them last week, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Two days later, the company's Twitter feed was full of messages under the Crivella West handle praising Palin and knocking President Obama.


"To say it was hacking would be giving more credit than due. It was more like spamming," Crivella Chief Executive Officer Art Crivella said Monday.

He said the company inadvertently allowed the action by setting up a Twitter account for comments on the e-mails without including privacy controls.

The company got involved in the e-mails when it offered to get them on line for free after Alaska officials said the release would cost $15 million. Alaska never responded, but MSNBC did.

Crivella said there have been at least 5 million hits on the e-mails since they went up Friday, and he believes the MSNBC link to the e-mails has got an equal number.