Associated Press Twitter Account Hacked, Tweets About False White House Explosion
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The official Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked on Tuesday, and sent out a tweet about an explosion at the White House that proved to be false.
The tweet from @AP read, "Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured."
Within minutes, writers from the Associated Press as well as the AP's official @APStyleBook account tweeted that the official AP account was hacked, and the tweet was untrue.
The White House also confirmed that there was no explosion, and Obama was unharmed. "The President is fine," White House press secretary Jay Carney said at the daily press briefing. The tweet received over 3,700 retweets within five minutes.
The stock market was affected immediately by the news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped approximately 150 points after the hacked tweet was sent out. The market quickly recovered when it was learned the news wasn't true.
The AP said Tuesday that the Twitter account had been suspended.
No information has been released about the person or persons who hacked the account.
