A photo showing an alleged attack on the Pentagon went viral on Twitter after being shared by a (now suspended) account called the Bloomberg Feed. Accompanied by a short text that read “Major explosion near the Pentagon, Washington”, the image showed a column of black smoke that seemed to billow a few feet away from a building that could apparently be mistaken for the headquarters of the Department of Defense of the United States. However, that photo was fake, as was the profile that posted it.
Wall Street shook
The account in question has improperly abused the graphics of the acclaimed American news organization Bloomberg. It also exploited the concept of the “blue check”, which previously on Twitter indicated the authenticity of a profile. The combination of all these factors: a fake but credible photo, a credible account and the presence of the blue check, has led several users to believe that the attack on the Pentagon was real. The tweet even fooled the US stock market, which, according to reports from the Washington Post and CNN, fell slightly immediately after the image was released. The Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 85 points for a few minutes before bouncing back again.
Source-tg24.sky.it