The Onion, a satirical news Web site and newspaper known for its ability to elicit peals of laughter, isn’t getting too many guffaws on this one. The site tweeted Thursday: Breaking- witnesses reporting screams and gunfire from inside Capitol Building. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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The site also posted the news to its Facebook page.

Twitter users immediately responded by asking whether this was a joke or if the site had been hacked. In recent months, hackers known as the Script Kiddies have hacked the Twitter accounts of Fox News, Wal-Mart, Unilever, Pfizer and NBC News, often posting fake news with “BREAKING” at the front.

The Onion office in New York confirmed that the tweet was not a hack, saying: “This is satire. That’s how it works.”

In Washington, people didn’t find the tweet so funny. One person wrote, “I work at the Capitol and I just yelled at my coworkers that there was gunfire… you scared the [expletive] out of me #fakenewsscares.”

Another Twitter user wrote, “I mean, I know you guys do satire, but I really don’t get this one….”

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