Hasta La Gadget!

The Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked today after a tweet was sent out from the account that read, “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” The Associated Press responded shortly after saying that its Twitter account had been compromised, and now the account has been suspended, but it should be back up shortly after Twitter and the AP resolve the issue.

The fake tweet was noticed by the AP fairly quickly, and several of their other Twitter accounts tweeted out that the hacked AP tweet was indeed bogus. However, many people were quick to shoot down the claim anyway, since the tweet wasn’t in AP style formatting in the first place, and no other mainstream news outlets were reporting on it.

The AP always puts “breaking” in all caps in their tweets, and they also use a service called SocialFlow to publish their tweets, whereas the fake tweet was sent out through the “web,” meaning it was sent through Twitter’s website rather than a third-party service like SocialFlow. Plus, the tweet was in title case, which the AP and other news sources never use.

In the end, it took only three minutes for the fake tweet to be officially denied by the AP, with the account being suspended just four minutes later. This is quite a fast response, but we shouldn’t expect nothing less of a news source like the AP, who is constantly keeping an eye on their social media feeds.

[via The Next Web]

AP Twitter account hacked with fake White House explosion claim is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Breaking: The White House has Vined! The White House has Vined! It’s a predetermined fact that all political entities will eventually seize to every form social media in an effort to “speak to kids”. And the White House totally killed the casting for its first Vine. More »

You just replaced Hollywood executives. Amazon released its first wave of TV show pilots and is pushing them all out to viewers and letting them decide which ones get made.

Do you live and breathe social media tools and have a passion for metrics? Engadget is looking for you!

We’re searching for a very special social- and community-savvy individual to lead the charge setting social strategy for the top consumer tech blog on the planet. Your role would focus on bringing the Engadget voice to life on new channels, leveraging an arsenal of measurement and analysis tools to identify best practices and broadly develop new audiences while interacting more directly with our existing fanbase.

You will need to be highly detail-oriented, unflaggingly personable, have a passion for technology and a deep understanding of how to leverage learnings from metrics to drive brand growth. Preference will be given to candidates in the San Francisco Bay area, but location is not a strict requirement and we are willing to work with the right person anywhere you live.

Read on for requirements and how to apply!

Filed under: Announcements, Meta

Comments

Let’s face it: Facebook privacy is something of a misnomer — it’s hard to use “Facebook” and “privacy” in the same sentence without it being considered negative. However, the social networking giant knows it, and it has announced that it will be partnering up with 19 state attorneys general in order to raise awareness for teen privacy on Facebook.

Facebook will be working with the National Association of Attorneys General in order to promote privacy awareness and provide general tips to teenagers on how to use Facebook’s privacy settings. Of course, many of us could use a lesson on how to keep our profiles private, but it seems teenagers are the main culprits.

More state attorneys general might hop on board in the future, but so far 19 of them will contribute to the initiative. Each of the 19 states will create their own informational videos on how to better manage your Facebook profile, as well as provide a general tip sheet with various. There will also be videos created by Facebook that will answer questions on privacy.

Frankly, we’re glad to see that Facebook is taking some initiative when it comes to privacy on the internet, and teaching people how to effectively use their services. Facebook is seen the brunt of criticism over its privacy practices over the past few years, and it looks like they’re finally coming around to their senses.

[via All Things D]

Facebook partnering with attorneys general for privacy awareness is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.