Illustrating just how out-of-control social media account hacking has become, the AP’s twitter account erroneously tweeted this morning that an explosion occurred at the White House, injuring the President of the United States.
The tweet, fortunately, was false. It was the product of a hacker (or group of hackers) that gained access to the venerable news reporting service’s official Twitter account, BI confirms.
The AP later reported that hackers “compromised” the main Twitter account, and sent out the tweet after “repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists.”
So intense was the public and media’s response to the matter, the AP’s White House correspondent Julie Pace posed a question to the White House press office in order to confirm the false nature of the tweet.
“I appreciate you saying that,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained. “The President is fine, I just spoke with him.”
For now, the AP Twitter account has been suspended.
In response to this morning’s false report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly plunged. Markets have since recovered from their earlier lows.
