The Associated Press Twitter account generated some brief shock waves on Tuesday afternoon, sending a tweet at 1:07 p.m. describing an explosion at the White House. “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.”
The Associated Press confirmed the tweet was fake and their account had been hacked.
“The tweet, which said that there had been two explosions at the White House and President Barack Obama was injured, came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists,” AP said in a statement.
The tweet was retweeted 4316 times and made a favorite 557 times.
Mark Knoller, White House Correspondent for CBS tweeted, “At WH briefing, AP’s White House Correspondent Julie Pace announces that @AP twitter account hacked and phony tweets filed. Ignore them.”
AP tweeted at 2:04 p.m.: “All, AP’s Twitter accounts will be suspended until we can be assured of their security. Do not respond to any news posted by these accounts.”
Stocks briefly dipped at news of the events. The NASDAQ dropped from 3270 to 3241, and the S&P 1577 to 1564. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 143 points from 14,697 to 14,554. Trading resumed normally as soon as news of the fake emerged.
The Associated Press would not comment on extra security measures they would use on their account.
