Fake image of Pentagon explosion goes viral

[Honoria]

Fake image of Pentagon explosion goes viral




Following the depiction from a verified Twitter account, another image showing a building purported to be the White House in black smoke started to circulate on the platform.



An overhead view of the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia.

The Arlington Fire Department in Virginia confirmed that there was no explosion near the Pentagon on Monday. | Alex Wong/Getty Images



By KIERRA FRAZIER



05/22/2023 04:05 PM EDT



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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[Honoria]

An apparently AI-generated hoax of an explosion at the Pentagon went viral online — and markets briefly dipped

Rebecca Cohen May 22, 2023, 11:04 AM EDT

An apparently AI-generated photo faking an explosion near the Pentagon in D.C. went viral.

The Arlington Police Department confirmed that the image and accompanying reports were fake.

But when the news was shared by a reputable Twitter account on Monday, the market briefly dipped.


A fake image of an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., may have been created by artificial-intelligence tools.



But that didn't stop it from being spread by dozens of accounts on social media — and the stock market briefly dipped as the fake news spread.



An image appearing to show a massive cloud of smoke near a building and claims that there had been an explosion near the Pentagon started circulating on Twitter early Monday.



But the image and associated claims were fake, the Arlington Police Department said.



"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 Arlington PD tweeted Monday.

While it hasn't been confirmed whether the image was made using AI tools, it does feature some of the hallmarks of AI-generated images. The columns on the supposed building in the hoax photo vary in size, for example, and the fence appears to blend into the sidewalk in some places.



The photo was spread by dozens of accounts on social media, including RT, a Russian state-media Twitter account with more than 3 million followers — but the post has since been deleted. Most other accounts that retweeted the image appear to be affiliated with conspiracies or the war in Ukraine.



Information about the purported explosion was shared by the Twitter account @deitaone at 10:06 a.m. ET. By 10:10, the market had fallen 0.26% but quickly bounced back.



DeItaone later posted that news of the explosion was fake.



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