Tweets about a D.C. cell service blackout appear to stem from bot-driven misinformation campaign

Police at protests outside the White House.
(Image credit: SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images)

Sunday night protests in Washington, D.C. turned fiery after sundown, but hundreds of tweets claiming an internet blackout in the city very likely weren't true.

The hashtag #DCBlackout started trending on Twitter Sunday night, with alleged protesters claiming their messages and photos weren't going through and claiming an orchestrated cell phone service outage was to blame. The fact that a hashtag about a supposed blackout was popular enough to be trending on Twitter was questionable enough, and by the next morning, reporters started explaining what likely happened.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.