Earlier this afternoon, a bug with the Apple News app caused notifications for a single CNN news story to be sent out to iPhone and iPad users over and over again.

The issue, which lasted for approximately 15 minutes, appears to have impacted all Apple News subscribers who had alerts turned on for CNN based on a slew of complaints that popped up on reddit, Twitter, and the MacRumors forums.

applenewscnnalertbug
It wasn't clear if the problem was with CNN or the Apple News app, but on Twitter, CNN claims it was the latter. According to the news organization, CNN only sent a single notification, and the company is working with Apple to identify the problem.


Customers who were affected by the repeated notifications received somewhere around a hundred notifications, and the notifications in question were interrupting normal device operation. It appears that the issue centered around a single CNN news story, but we've also seen reports that some notifications from Fox News also repeated.


The only fix for the issue at the time was to turn off Apple News notifications, but the problem was resolved by Apple quickly and customers who did turn off their notifications due to the CNN alert bug can now safely re-enable them.

Top Rated Comments

now i see it Avatar
95 months ago
I wasn't aware that anyone used the Apple News app any more.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OldSchoolMacGuy Avatar
95 months ago
And yet, countless other users of Apple News haven't had any issues. So somehow this is a bug that only impacts CNN but is Apple's fault?

Not seeing multiple notifications on any of my sites that also push to Apple News.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
farewelwilliams Avatar
95 months ago
so much irony happening
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
springsup Avatar
95 months ago
The worker who triggered CNN's false repeated news alerts has been fired. An FCC report say...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lone Deranger Avatar
95 months ago
With Apple's current track record of software quality (read: lack thereof), it's likely a safe bet.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pika2000 Avatar
95 months ago
I guess this is a way for CNN to get some people to notice them.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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