Dear Cointelegraph readers,
We are incredibly grateful for the support and trust you have shown our publication over the last 10 years. We are committed to delivering the most thoughtful, interesting and impactful news affecting the cryptocurrency space.
Today, during routine reporting, Cointelegraph’s social media team posted a message on This was false, the result of misinformation, without prior editorial approval. The news tip comes from an unverified screenshot posted by an X user who claimed it was from the Bloomberg terminal.
Cointelegraph did not ultimately publish an article with this incorrect information, but we deeply regret that we mistakenly posted it on X and the impact this had. An internal investigation found that our standard procedure for publishing breaking news on social media, which requires verifying sources before posting to social media, was not followed.
The schedule of events is as follows:
13:17:30 UTC: The editorial team was made aware of the rumors through a Telegram channel that Cointelegraph staff uses to discover stories that may be of interest to readers (Figure 1). The full conversation is shared below.
illustration 1
Figure 2
13:19:27 UTC: Employee 1 reposted the lead’s text, which was shared from a now-deleted Telegram account (Figure 2), to an internal Slack channel (Figure 3).
Figure 3, Figure 4
13:24:16 UTC: In an effort to publicize the developments as quickly as possible, Employee 2 released the report to X without the editor first confirming the accuracy of the source. This violates Cointelegraph’s social media process, which requires source confirmation and editorial approval before publication (Figure 4).
13:48:38 UTC: Readers reported the issue to Cointelegraph via social media channels (Figure 5).
Figure 5
13:52:19 UTC: In an internal Cointelegraph chat, Employee 1 pointed out that the source could not be found (Figure 6).
Figure 6
13:54:14 UTC: Cointelegraph Employee 3 edited the message to X to clarify that the information was unconfirmed (Figure 7).
Figure 7
14:03:42 UTC: Cointelegraph reached out to BlackRock and Bloomberg Terminal and removed the post (Figure 8).
Figure 8
14:32:23 UTC: After receiving confirmation from BlackRock that the report was false, Cointelegraph retracted the initial tweet and issued the following statement (Figure 9):
Figure 9
To ensure this doesn’t happen again, the Cointelegraph team thoroughly audits and reviews our social media management processes, particularly with regard to authenticating breaking news before a post can be published. We are holding discussions with all employees involved and will make any necessary structural changes.
This incident reminds the Cointelegraph team that our actions have serious implications for the entire cryptocurrency community. We strive to learn from these mistakes and maintain the highest journalistic standards.
Sincerely,
The Cointelegraph team