The Associated Press news agency suspended its Twitter account today after it was hacked and sent out a hoax tweet reporting that two explosions at the White House had left US president Barack Obama injured.
The bogus tweet read “Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” Within minutes, it was retweeted over 4,000 times.
The hackers were only able to send one tweet as Twitter suspended the account, just minuted after the tweet was sent.
The financial world reacted quicly to the news as US stocks plunged briefly before sharply reconvering to their normal levels when it was onfirmed the tweet was a hoax. The bogus tweeted was spotted as no other news outlets reported news of such an attack. The formatting of the tweet was not in keeping with Associated Press style guidelines with the word “explosions” capitalized and referring to President Obama by his first name.
The Associated Press confirmed its account was briefly hacked and said the tweet was “bogus.” The Associated Press Corporate Communications Twitter handle said: “The @AP Twitter account has been suspended after it was hacked. The tweet about an attack on the White House was false.”