Home » AP Twitter account hacked; tweet falsely reported White House attack

AP Twitter account hacked; tweet falsely reported White House attack

By Lorie Hailey
lanereport.com editor

WASHINGTON (April 23, 2013) — The Associated Press said Tuesday that it’s Twitter account had been hacked, after tweets from the account said an attack had taken place at the White House.

twitterAround 1 p.m., a tweet from the AP came out that said President Barack Obama had been injured during two explosions at the White House.

The @AP account tweet read: “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.”

The message spread quickly, and many Twitter users questioned whether the AP account had been hacked. The stock market reacted quickly; the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a big dip, about 120 points.

Minutes later, the Associated Press’ corporate communications Twitter account said the tweet was fake.

The tweet from @AP_CorpComm said: “That is a bogus @AP tweet.”

Later, the AP released a wire statement about the tweet: “The tweet about an attack at the White House is false. We will advise more as soon as possible.”

CBS News Twitter accounts also were hacked last week. The Syrian Electronic Army reportedly was responsible, according to the Huffington Post.

The AP’s Twitter account is temporarily suspended.