Security News > 2023 > May > Pentagon explosion hoax goes viral after verified Twitter accounts push
Highly realistic AI-generated images depicting an explosion near the Pentagon that went viral on Twitter caused the stock market to dip briefly earlier today.
Tweets of this image supposedly depicting an explosion near the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, were amplified by many verified Twitter accounts, including Russian state media and a verified account impersonating the Bloomberg news agency.
While Twitter has now suspended the fake Bloomberg account, this highlights the dangers behind its pay-to-be-verified system, allowing any account to be verified by paying for a blue check which, for many, implies it can be trusted.
"This follows a similar incident in November after Twitter Blue added the ability to pay for a blue check when a verified account impersonating the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical giant tweeted that insulin"is free now.
Twitter paused Twitter Blue paid verification in response to the incident and many other similar pranks and hoaxes, as a Twitter sales employee told NBC at the time.
The Twitter Blue premium subscription service has been available globally since March 23, 2023, and it allows anyone to verify their account by paying $8/month to get a blue check and some extra features, including fewer ads, prioritized ranking in conversations and search, and access to tweet editing.