An explanation of the fake position Bitcoin ETF news sharing
Dear Cointelegraph Readers,
We are incredibly grateful for your support and trust in our publication over the past 10 years. We strive to deliver the most thoughtful, engaging and relevant news that impacts the cryptocurrency space.
Earlier today, in regular coverage, Cointelegraph's social media team posted a message on X without prior editorial confirmation that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission had approved BlackRock's iShares spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF. This is the result of misinformation. The news headline comes from an unverified screenshot posted by user X claiming to be from Bloomberg Terminal.
Cointelegraph ultimately did not publish an article with this misinformation, but we are very sorry to post this error on X and the impact it caused. An internal investigation found that our standard procedure for posting breaking news on social media requires that sources be verified before posting on social media.
The schedule of events is as follows.
13:17:30 UTC: The editorial team was notified of the leaked news via the Telegram channel used by Cointelegraph staff to find stories that might interest readers (Figure 1). The full speech is shared below.
13:19:27 UTC: Employee 1 has reposted the deleted leadership text in the Telegram account to the internal Slack channel (Figure 3).
13:24:16 UTC: In an effort to publish the events as quickly as possible, Employee 2 posted the report to X without first verifying the authenticity of the source from the editor. This violates Cointelegraph's social media process, which requires source verification and editorial approval before posting (Figure 4).
13:48:38 UTC: Readers reported the issue to Cointelegraph via social media channels (Figure 5).
13:52:19 UTC: In an internal Cointelegraph discussion, Employee 1 pointed out that the source could not be found (Figure 6).
13:54:14 UTC: Employee 3 from Cointelegraph edits the message on X to clarify that the data is unverified (Figure 7).
14:03:42 UTC: Cointelegraph reached Blackberg and Bloomberg terminal and removed the post (Figure 8).
14:32:23 UTC: After receiving confirmation from BlackRock that the report was incorrect, Cointelegraph deleted the original tweet and issued the following statement (Figure 9).
To prevent this from happening again, the Cointelegraph team is thoroughly auditing and reviewing our social media management processes, especially verifying breaking news before a post is published. We are talking to all the employees concerned, and we will make all necessary structural changes.
This event reminds the Cointelegraph team that our actions have serious implications for the entire cryptocurrency community. We are committed to learning from these mistakes and to the highest standards of journalism.
best regard
Cointelegraph team
