Hacked Yahoo! News twitter feed reports Atlanta Ebola outbreak
Healthcare and Public Health
A tweet went out at 4:41 p.m. Sunday claiming the disease had spread beyond a city hospital where two infected Americans are quarantined.
“BREAKING: EBOLA OUTBREAK IN ATLANTA!” blared Yahoo! News’ Twitter feed. “Estimated 145 people infected so far since Doctors carrying the disease were flown in from Africa.”
The tweet disappeared about 20 minutes later.
Few of the hundreds of people who retweeted the message seemed to take it seriously.
“WTF,” one commenter replied. “Change your password.”
The not-so-funny prank was referencing missionaries infected with Ebola who are undergoing treatment at Emory University Hospital.
The Yahoo! news account later mentioned “an unauthorized tweet with misinformation on Ebola” and encouraged followers to “disregard that tweet.”