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How a false X post about pausing tariffs led to multi-trillion-dollar market swings


What began as a misquoted Fox News interview led to a flood of false and misleading posts on X. Before it was corrected, stock markets rallied then plummeted again.

ET, the National Economic Council's Kevin Hassett was asked during a live Fox News interview whether President Trump would consider a 90-day pause to the sweeping tariffs he imposed on many countries last week. ET, cheers broke out across the New York Stock Exchange trading floor, according to CNN, as the market rallied on the false premise that the White House was weighing a tariffs pause. To scholars of disinformation like Kate Starbird at the University of Washington, the market mayhem spurred by posts on X underscores the dangers of social media with both few guardrails and policies in place that incentivize virality over truthfulness.

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false X post