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Writer's picturejohn kepler

Fake image of Pentagon explosion goes viral

The image showed a large cloud of black smoke of what verified Twitter users said was next to the Pentagon.


A fake image of what was claimed to be an explosion near the Pentagon spread on social media Monday morning, with markets fluctuating around the time the posts appeared online.

The image showed a large cloud of black smoke of what verified Twitter users said was next to the Pentagon. The tweet was originally shared on Twitter on Monday morning by the user OSINTdefender, a Twitter account that describes itself as an “Open Source Intelligence Monitor.” The post has since been deleted.


Another account that tweeted the image was a verified account impersonating a Bloomberg news feed. That account, called @BloombergFeed, has since been suspended. The photo was also spread by RT, a Russian state-media Twitter account with over 3 million followers.

Following the fake Pentagon photo, another image displaying a building purported to be the White House in black smoke started to circulate on Twitter. The Arlington Fire Department in Virginia confirmed that there was no explosion near the Pentagon on Monday. @PFPAOfficial and the ACFD are aware of a social media report circulating online about an explosion near the Pentagon,” the department said in a tweet. “There is NO explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon reservation, and there is no immediate danger or hazards to the public.” The S&P 500 had fallen 0.26 percent but quickly bounced back once it was proved the Pentagon image was fake. It’s unclear how the photo was created and whether artificial intelligence was involved. But observers pointed out not only obvious discrepancies between the image and the actual building, but also signs of generative AI. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the image.

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