Twitter Hoax Sends Wall Street into Panic

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 | by Pat's Picks

A Twitter hoax hit Wall Street yesterday, momentarily erasing $200 billion of value from the US stock markets. The tweets in question purportedly came from the Associated Press and reported that the White House had been bombed and that President Obama was injured, news that sent the Dow tumbling. The Wall Street Journal says the hoax highlights just how vulnerable an electronic trading system that buy and sells without guidance from humans really is.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal