OOPS! Bloomberg Causes Panic With False Invasion Headline

The financial news site Bloomberg accidentally posted a report saying that Russia had invaded Ukraine Friday afternoon with a headline on its homepage.

“Live: Russia invades Ukraine,” read a startling headline on Bloomberg’s homepage at around 4 p.m.

The post stayed up for about 30 minutes, according to Olga Lautman, a Russian analyst who posted the message on social media.

Readers who clicked on the disturbing story — which comes amid tensions as Russian troops mass on the Ukrainian border and US officials warn of a potential invasion — were shown an error page.

“I went on the site and saw the breaking news but knew it wasn’t real because I deal with Ukraine and will be one of the first to know,” Lautman said. “It is bizarre and a pretty big mistake to make considering this is a potential large-scale invasion and everyone is on edge.”

“We prepare headlines for many scenarios and one of those headlines was inadvertently published at around 4 PM ET today on our website,” a Bloomberg News spokesperson said. “We deeply regret the error.”

A Bloomberg News spokesperson said she had posted the pre-scheduled headline, “Russia Invades Ukraine,” in error.

“The headline has been removed and we are investigating the cause,” the spokesperson added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the post saying how dangerous the warmongering rhetoric from the West was. He did say that he did not believe the headline was intended as “a provocation.”

“This situation makes it clear how dangerous such tensions are, which have been triggered by daily aggressive statements that we keep hearing from Washington, European capitals, and London,” Peskov said.