The Onion’s hostage satire spawns outrage on Twitter

The Twitter account for satirical news site The Onion is known for posting quick one-shot jokes to promote the site’s stories. But when the account began tweeting that children had been taken hostage at Capitol Hill earlier this morning, followers got suspicious. Had the account been hacked?

When reached for comment, the Onion told the Daily Dot they hadn’t been hacked. Instead, they were just trying a new style of comedy (see their full satirical news story and fake photo here). Judging from Twitter’s reactions, it might not be a joke to reuse anytime soon.