Fake Pentagon Explosion Image On Twitter Leads To Major Market Plunge
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Fake Pentagon Explosion Image On Twitter Leads To Major Market Plunge

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On Monday, an image claiming to show an explosion near the Pentagon went viral on Twitter and, in the aftermath, sent markets crashing. Several verified accounts, including national news organizations, shared the suspected AI-generated image which shows black smoke billowing up from the ground next to a white building.

The image shared on Twitter looks so realistic that people became panicky, causing the S&P 500 to drop 10 points in five minutes. 

Fake Pentagon Explosion Image On Twitter Leads To Major Market Plunge

The Kobeissi Letter, a source that reports on the global capital markets, tweeted the image one hour after it went viral, writing, ‘With multiple news sources reporting it as real, the S&P 500 fell 30 points in minutes. This resulted in a $500 billion market cap swing on a fake image.’ Twitter user Walter Bloomberg also shared the image, tweeting: “Large Explosion near the Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C. – Initial Report.’ 

Fake Pentagon Explosion Image On Twitter Leads To Major Market Plunge

Russian-owned RT equally pushed the image to its Twitter, captioning it as an explosion has occurred, although it has now been deleted. The Arlington Fire Department, however, swiftly debunked the incident, stating there is no explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon reservation. And while some Twitter users blamed the advanced AI technology, others pointed to accounts that retweeted without investigation. 

Nick Waters, an ex-army personnel and Bellingcat journalist, tweeted how to tell if the image was fake. ‘Confident that this picture is claiming to show an ‘explosion near the Pentagon’ is AI-generated,’ Waters posted. ‘Check out the frontage of the building and the way the fence melds into the crowd barriers. There are also no other images, videos, or people posting as first-hand witnesses.’

Waters continued, ‘Whenever an event like this takes place, it will affect a large number of people. Even leaving aside that fact this picture is clearly AI-generated, it’s immediately possible to identify this as a fake by geolocation and conducting searches on social media.’ This AI-generated disaster comes as people call for more regulations on the technology and fear it will destroy humanity with the spread of misinformation.