The Onion sent this alarming message to the feeds of its more than 3 million Twitter followers Thursday: “BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building.”
Remembering the fake news of Obama’s assassination that hackers tweeted after breaking into a Fox News account in July, The Washington Post’s blog speculated the The Onion must have been hacked.
But it wasn’t hackers, a spokesperson from The Onion — and Project Manager Matt Kirsch, who runs its Twitter account — told Mashable.
Rather, the startling tweets were a promotion for a fake news story about congressmen taking a group of schoolchildren hostage.
