The Associated Press returned to Twitter with 2 million fewer followers on Wednesday, one day after a cyberattack by a Syrian group resulted in the news organization’s Twitter account incorrectly reporting that an explosion had rocked the White House and injured President Barack Obama.
The AP account temporarily went offline, and appeared to have lost millions of followers when it returned. But by Wednesday evening, Twitter was apparently able to gradually restore the AP’s large following.
The hackers are part of a group called the Syrian Electronic Army, which attacks news websites and posts messages on Facebook supporting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. According to the SEA’s website, its goal is “supporting the cause of the Syrian Arab people by armaments with science and knowledge against the campaigns led by the Arab media and Western on our Republic by broadcasting fabricated news about what is happening in Syria.”
Members of the group later gloated about the fake AP story about the White House attack, tweeting: “Ops! @AP get owned by Syrian Electronic Army! #SEA #Syria #ByeByeObama.”
In response, stock market prices dropped precipitously, though they rebounded after the story was revealed to be fake. The FBI is investigating the incident.
In the meantime, Twitter Inc. will soon announce plans to bolster security, according to CNET. The site will introduce security features that require users to provide additional information in order to log in from new or unauthorized computers.
“We don’t have anything to announce at this time,” said a Twitter spokesperson in a statement to CNET.
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