A fake image called 'explosion near the Pentagon' spreads to Twitter authenticated accounts and the stock market is confused

In response to some reports that an explosion occurred near the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) building, the market situation in the US stock market was confused, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping about 80 points. This report was later found to be false.

Fake AI-generated image of explosion near Pentagon spreads on social media | Artificial Intelligence (AI) | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/22/pentagon-ai-generated-image-explosion

Verified Twitter Accounts Spread AI-Generated Hoax of Pentagon Explosion
https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kx84b/ai-generated-pentagon-explosion-hoax-twitter

'Verified' Twitter accounts share fake image of 'explosion' near Pentagon, causing confusion | CNN Business
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/22/tech/twitter-fake-image-pentagon-explosion/index.html

Around 23:00 on May 22, 2023 Japan time, fake images of what appeared to be an explosion near the Pentagon were circulated on Twitter by several accounts, and some media outlets erroneously reported it as fact. As a result, the stock market fell temporarily.

Meanwhile, Russian Z-channels, for the lack of a better idea, are spreading this AI-generated image as BREAKING NEWS EXPLOSIONS AT THE PENTAGON RIGHT NOW.
???????????? pic.twitter.com/Ful6iwuVJo

— Illia Ponomarenko ???????? (@IAPonomarenko) May 22, 2023

According to experts, the building in the image does not look very similar to the Pentagon and may have been generated by AI.

At 00:27 the next day, the Arlington County, Virginia Fire Department, which has jurisdiction over the Pentagon, said, ``We are aware that there are images circulating on the Internet that there has been an explosion near the Pentagon. It has not occurred and there is no direct danger or harm to the public,' he tweeted, clarifying the fact that no explosion was confirmed.

@PFPAOfficial and the ACFD are aware of a social media report circulating online about an explosion near the Pentagon. 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. pic. twitter.com/uznY0s7deL

—Arlington Fire & EMS (@ArlingtonVaFD) May 22, 2023

The fake news was reported by OSINTdefender, a military news media with 336,000 followers, and RT, a Russian state-owned media, and was later retracted. Many users who received the information were confused because it was spread not only by official media, but also by fake accounts pretending to be Bloomberg and numerous accounts that were given a 'verified' checkmark by Twitter. . OSINTdefender apologized for the misinformation, quoting one user's tweet saying, ``The image is made by AI because the shape of the streetlight is strange,'' saying, ``Such an image can easily manipulate information. To be honest, I'm surprised.'

It's appears that the Image being circulated is an AI Generated Picture which just shows how easily these sort of Images can be used to “Manipulate” the Information Space and how Dangerous this could be in the Future. possible. https://t.co/diDd5XTZ6I

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 22, 2023

Due to the spread of fake news, the dollar yen also fell by nearly 50 sen at one time.

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Dollar Yen Plunges with Fake News!
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The dollar/yen plummets as false information and images circulate about an explosion near the Pentagon (U.S. Department of Defense)⤵︎

The view that the image was generated by AI ... Has the day come when the AI image moves the exchange ... https://t.co/7ECXJBwmSL pic.twitter.com/k5evEvCcQ8

— Mr. Candle ???? FX Trader (@cosplay_candle) May 22, 2023

This incident coincided with the timing of Twitter's change to a mechanism that allowed ordinary people to buy the authenticated mark that was once given only to celebrities, so Twitter, a huge platform, made it easy to spread fake news. It is also pointed out that it highlighted the problem of whether there is.