The twitter feed of news agency Associated Press (AP) was hacked, and “reported” that there was an explosion at The White House, injuring US President Barack Obama. The tweet came around 5 pm BST.
The tweet was identified as fake as no other news agencies are reporting any situation at the White House. The false tweets had it repercussions, the US stock market briefly tanked. The Dow Jones index had been up over 100 points, but it then lost 150 points.
The Associated Press account has since been suspended, an obvious measure to prevent further false information from being distributed by a typically reliable news source. The AP says today’s intrusion came after hackers “made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists”
