The Power of Media
The power of one wrong tweet
By Heather Kelly, CNN updated 10:19 AM EDT, Wed April 24, 2013 | Filed under: Social Media
STORY HIGHLIGHTS A fake tweet can spread across the social network and into the real world quickly One tweet from a hacked AP account resulted in a dip in the stock market There is no way to edit or take back a tweet and deleting is ineffective once it is in the wild
(CNN) -- Misinformation can spread quickly on Twitter, each retweet exposing it to wider audiences and even resulting in real world impacts.
On Tuesday, hackers took over the Associated Press Twitter account and falsely claimed that there had been explosions at the White House and that the president was hurt. The tweet was up for a few minutes and retweeted more than 3,000 times before Twitter took the account offline.
The AP immediately confirmed the news was not true, but the tweet was up long enough to send a shudder through the stock market, which plunged 143 points before recovering.
Real tweets have the power to end careers, cause diplomatic tensions, fuel a revolution and find a kidney. Fake tweets can have the same ripple effects, and damage control is difficult. There is no way to edit or append a correction to a tweet, and once it has been retweeted, those 140 characters take on a life of their own. A follow-up tweet with the correct information might not be seen by the same people.
Social media during a disaster
"You want to respond as quickly as possible. Deleting the tweet is a good approach, but even if you delete it it's obviously already out there," said social media expert Krista Neher.
The AP incident is not the first time a tweet has influenced markets. In August 2012, an Italian journalist set up a fake Twitter account for a member of Russia's government and tweeted that the president of Syria had been killed, causing brief fluctuations in the oil markets. The journalist was an experienced Twitter hoaxer, having previously posted fake
By Heather Kelly, CNN updated 10:19 AM EDT, Wed April 24, 2013 | Filed under: Social Media
STORY HIGHLIGHTS A fake tweet can spread across the social network and into the real world quickly One tweet from a hacked AP account resulted in a dip in the stock market There is no way to edit or take back a tweet and deleting is ineffective once it is in the wild
(CNN) -- Misinformation can spread quickly on Twitter, each retweet exposing it to wider audiences and even resulting in real world impacts.
On Tuesday, hackers took over the Associated Press Twitter account and falsely claimed that there had been explosions at the White House and that the president was hurt. The tweet was up for a few minutes and retweeted more than 3,000 times before Twitter took the account offline.
The AP immediately confirmed the news was not true, but the tweet was up long enough to send a shudder through the stock market, which plunged 143 points before recovering.
Real tweets have the power to end careers, cause diplomatic tensions, fuel a revolution and find a kidney. Fake tweets can have the same ripple effects, and damage control is difficult. There is no way to edit or append a correction to a tweet, and once it has been retweeted, those 140 characters take on a life of their own. A follow-up tweet with the correct information might not be seen by the same people.
Social media during a disaster
"You want to respond as quickly as possible. Deleting the tweet is a good approach, but even if you delete it it's obviously already out there," said social media expert Krista Neher.
The AP incident is not the first time a tweet has influenced markets. In August 2012, an Italian journalist set up a fake Twitter account for a member of Russia's government and tweeted that the president of Syria had been killed, causing brief fluctuations in the oil markets. The journalist was an experienced Twitter hoaxer, having previously posted fake