Twitter investigates after publication of 55,000 user names and passwords online

Twitter has launched an investigation into the publication of thousands of user names and passwords online.

The details of 55,000 accounts were posted earlier Tuesday on Pastebin, a website used by hackers to show the results of their hacks, technology website ZDNet reported.

However, upon closer inspection, it appeared that the Pastebin list included spam accounts and incorrect login credentials.

- We've discovered that the list of alleged accounts and passwords found on Pastebin consists of more than 20,000 duplicates, many spam accounts that have already been suspended and many login credentials that do not appear to be linked -- that is, the password and user name are not actually associated with each other - Twitter said.