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Latest / Media, elections and online safety

IncidentMediaFinanceUSReported

Fake, apparently AI-made image of a Pentagon explosion spreads on Twitter as stocks briefly dip

See how this story connects

Source: SnopesAlso reported by PetaPixel

On the morning of 22 May 2023 a fake image of an explosion near the Pentagon spread on Twitter through paid verified accounts, including one posing as Bloomberg, and was repeated by RT and India’s Republic TV. The Arlington County Fire Department said no explosion had happened. US stocks dipped about 0.26% minutes after a widely followed account posted it and recovered quickly.

Why it matters

A single synthetic image passed through verified accounts and news outlets fast enough to coincide with a brief market dip. Platforms and newsrooms had minutes to check it.

When
22 May 2023
ID
WTA-N-2023-0060
Who
Twitter, RT, Arlington County Fire Department
System
AI-generated image
Operator
Unknown
Type
disinformation
Status
debunked; disclosed by Arlington County Fire Department · Incident ledger

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Snopes and the reporting credited above. We could not open the primary document, so it is marked Reported. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.

Read the original at Snopes

Source copy: download the page as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Cite this story

WTA-N-2023-0060: “Fake, apparently AI-made image of a Pentagon explosion spreads on Twitter as stocks briefly dip.” wheresthe.ai, 22 May 2023. https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-fake-pentagon-explosion-image-2023-05/ (source: Snopes).

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