Dear Cointelegraph readers,
We are deeply grateful for your support and trust in our publications over the past decade. We strive to provide the most thoughtful, engaging and impactful news impacting the cryptocurrency space.
Earlier today, in routine reporting, Cointelegraph’s social media team posted a message on X without prior editorial approval that the SEC had approved BlackRock’s iShares spot Bitcoin exchange Exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This is wrong and is the result of an error message. The news tip originated from an unverified screenshot posted by an X user, who claimed that the screenshot came from a Bloomberg terminal.
Cointelegraph did not ultimately publish the article containing this error message, but we deeply regret the incorrect publication of this information on X and the impact it had. An internal investigation revealed that we did not follow standard procedures for breaking news on social media, which requires verifying sources before posting to social media.
The timeline of events is as follows:
13:17:30 UTC: The editorial team receives alerts about rumors via a Telegram channel, which Cointelegraph staff use to discover stories that may be of interest to readers (Figure 1). The full conversation is shared below.
13:19:27 UTC: Employee 1 reposted the thread text shared by a Telegram account to an internal Slack channel (Figure 3), and the account was later deleted (Figure 2).
13:24:16 UTC: In order to announce the progress as quickly as possible, Employee 2 released the report to X without first obtaining the editor’s confirmation of the authenticity 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 this issue to Cointelegraph through social media channels (Figure 5).
13:52:19 UTC: In an internal Cointelegraph chat, Employee 1 stated that the source could not be found (Figure 6).
13:54:14 UTC: Cointelegraph employee 3 edited the message on X to clarify that the information was unverified (Figure 7).
14:03:42 UTC: Cointelegraph contacted BlackRock and the Bloomberg terminal and removed the post (Figure 8).
14:32:23 UTC: After receiving confirmation from BlackRock that the report was incorrect, Cointelegraph retracted the original tweet and release The following statement (Figure 9):
To ensure something like this never happens again, the Cointelegraph team is thoroughly reviewing and reviewing our social media management processes, specifically the verification of breaking news before posting. We are in dialogue with all relevant employees and we will make all necessary structural changes.
This incident reminds the Cointelegraph team that our actions can have a serious impact on the entire cryptocurrency community. We are committed to learning from these mistakes and upholding the highest standards of journalism.
Sincerely,
Cointelegraph Team
Svlook
