AP Twitter Hacked, Hoax Claims White House Explosions Injure President Obama

White House explosions injuring President Obama were claimed by the Associate Press Twitter account just recently at 1:07 PM.

Fortunately, the Associated Press Twitter account was apparently hacked and the reports of two explosions at the White House are totally false.

The original AP Twitter hoax tweet about the White House bombing read: “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured”

Within three minutes of the AP Twitter account being hacked, AP representative Hananel jumped on to say, “Please Ignore AP Tweet on explosions, we’ve been hacked.” Twitter suspend the AP account, but not before they posted, “The tweet about an attack at the White House is false. We will advise more as soon as possible.”

Twitter handles from FIFA were hacked by Syrian rebels. Even CBS had two of its Twitter accounts hacked recently. Regardless, people on Twitter are already using the hash tag #APTwitterPassword to make fun of the Associated Press.

Anonymous is already claiming it didn’t hack the AP Twitter account:

Thanks for all the big ups but #Anonymous didn't hack the @AP. #BlameAnonymous

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) April 23, 2013

The AP Twitter hoax about White House explosions briefly had an effect on the stock markets. The S&P 500 began to dive sharply, dropping from 1,580 down to 1,565 within minutes. But the market quickly corrected after everyone realized it was a hoax.

Back in the real world, the Secret Service expanded White House security after the Boston bombing. So while the tweet may have been a hoax, government officials are taking the threat of a White House bombing seriously.

Were you initially fooled by the AP Twitter hoax saying dual White House explosions injured President Obama? What was your initial reaction?

Here's what happened to the S&P 500 when @AP's Twitter account was hacked and falsely reported White House blasts. pic.twitter.com/sFkhQQqHo6

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 23, 2013