Twitter hacking exposes social media weakness

Brian Womack reports on the fallout from AP’s feed being hacked, sending markets briefly tumbling.

LESS than a month after social media received regulators’ blessing to be a source for market-moving news, the hacking of the Associated Press’s Twitter account is raising concerns over the trustworthiness of information spread via the site.

Stocks tumbled about 1% on Tuesday after the AP, one of the world’s largest news agencies, said a hacking attack caused it to send out an erroneous Twitter post about explosions at the White House and injuries to President Barack Obama.