Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Fake Tweet causes temporary chaos – stock markets falls, recovers

A stock market and a nation already on edge was temporarily knocked off its axis on Tuesday by a single fake tweet. 

Following a hack attack, the Associated Press' verified Twitter account posted "an erroneous tweet" claiming that two explosions occurred in the White House and that President Barack Obama is injured. Moments later, the @AP Twitter account — with nearly 2 million followers — was suspended.

"That's a bogus tweet," an AP spokesperson initially told NBC News, a statement that was repeated by the company's corporate communications account. Though the false tweet disappeared, the false message continued to exist on the service in over 4,000 retweets. (Full story here)

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