Two explosions have not rocked the White House and President Obama is not injured.
But if you follow the Associated Press’ official Twitter account, you might have seen some disturbing news to the contrary. Earlier this afternoon, the AP’s official Twitter account, @AP, tweeted this:
Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.
It was quickly revealed to be the work of hackers, as AP staff began to tweet that the info was false. The AP has officially confirmed the hack, saying,
“Hackers compromised Twitter accounts of The Associated Press on Tuesday, sending out an erroneous tweet about an attack at the White House. The tweet said that there had been two explosions at the White House and President Barack Obama was injured. The attack on AP’s Twitter account and AP mobile app was preceded by a phishing attempt on AP’s corporate network.”
Also, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says that the President is doing just fine.
As of 1:55 pm EST, @AP account has been suspended for further investigation.
UPDATE: It appears that the false tweet sent the Dow plunging for a brief moment. Here’s what the activity looked like today:
Just goes to show the power of Twitter as a breaking news source, even if that breaking news is pure BS.