Dear coinpostman readers,
We are incredibly grateful for the support and trust you have placed in our publication over the last 10 years. We strive to deliver the most thoughtful, engaging and impactful news affecting the cryptocurrency space.
Earlier today, during routine coverage, coinpostman’s social media team posted a message on X without prior editorial approval stating that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission had approved BlackRock’s iShares spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF. This was false, the result of misinformation. The news lead originated from an unconfirmed screenshot posted by an X user who claimed it was from the Bloomberg Terminal.
coinpostman did not ultimately publish an article with this incorrect information, but we deeply regret posting this in error on X and the impact it has caused. An internal investigation revealed that our standard procedure for posting breaking news on social media, wherein sources are required to be verified before posting to social media, was not followed.
Timeline of events:
– 13:17:30 UTC: The editorial team was alerted to the rumored news through a Telegram channel that coinpostman employees use to discover stories that might be of interest to readers.
– 13:19:27 UTC: Employee 1 reposted the text of the lead shared by a Telegram account that has since been deleted to an internal Slack channel.
– 13:24:16 UTC: In an effort to publish the developments as soon as possible, Employee 2 posted the report to X without prior confirmation of the source’s veracity from the editor. This violates coinpostman’s social media process, in which source confirmation and editorial approval are required before posting.
– 13:48:38 UTC: Readers reported the issue to coinpostman via social media channels.
– 13:52:19 UTC: In an internal coinpostman chat, Employee 1 flagged that the source could not be located.
– 13:54:14 UTC: Employee 3 from coinpostman edited the message on X to clarify that the information was unconfirmed.
– 14:03:42 UTC: coinpostman reached out to BlackRock and the Bloomberg Terminal and removed the post.
– 14:32:23 UTC: After receiving confirmation from BlackRock that the report was incorrect, coinpostman retracted the initial tweet and issued the following statement:
To ensure that something like this does not happen again, the coinpostman team is thoroughly auditing and reviewing our social media management processes, especially around the authentication of breaking news before a post can be published. We are having conversations with all of the employees involved, and we will make all necessary structural changes.
This incident reminds the coinpostman team that our actions have serious ramifications across the cryptocurrency community. We are committed to learning from these mistakes and adhering to the highest standards of journalism.
Sincerely,
The coinpostman team
