U.S. stocks briefly tumbled this morning reacting to social media reports of an explosion near the Pentagon.
Interestingly, many social platforms re-tweeted Twitter with images of a explosion that resulted in a significant albeit not durable market sell-off.
The S&P 500 index has now recovered and stabilized, since major media outlets have debunked the incident. Images of the explosion have been analyzed and shown to be fakes, possibly generated with the help of artificial intelligence.
RT (a major Russian news agency with millions of followers) tweeted the single image of billowing smoke next to the Pentagon and then took it down without explanation. Many Twitter users continue to re-tweet the image.
The repercussions and fallout of re-tweeting "breaking news" from verified and un-verified Twitter sources will undoubtedly have long time consequences, especially since it had an effect (albeit a short-lived one) on international markets. The original source of the Tweet has not yet been ascertained.
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