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https://www.wsj.com/articles/was-svb-a-twitter-panic-signature-bank-run-bailout-treasury-rates-bonds-mob-influencers-social-media-103fe172

Was the SVB Collapse a Twitter Panic?

The madness of crowds is becoming everyday life in the 21st century.

By Daniel Henninger

March 15, 2023 6:37 pm ET

Wonder Land: How is it that the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation could have been spooked into a premature all-depositor bailout following hysterics on a social-media platform? Images: Shutterstock/Zuma Press Composite: Mark Kelly

Did Twitter contribute to the panic over the stability of the U.S. banking system? That is the question raised by a thought-provoking piece in this newspaper Tuesday.

“Posts on Twitter and other social-media platforms,” the Journal wrote, “helped fuel concerns about the U.S. banking system in recent days, as a range of users from prominent investors to internet provocateurs speculated more chaos could ensue.” The Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Patrick McHenry, calls it “the first Twitter-fueled bank run.”