A six-year-old article mistakenly seen by Bloomberg financial news users yesterday reported the bankruptcy of United Airlines and triggered a massive sell-off that nearly obliterated the company's stock in a matter of minutes.
The light-speed wipeout is a powerful reminder of how quickly bad information can spread via the Internet to a trigger-happy Wall Street that is willing to dump millions in stock before checking the facts.
It exposed how Bloomberg's influential brand name is vulnerable to bogus content -- the old article was posted to a Bloomberg subscription service by a Florida investment adviser, one of Bloomberg's many "third-party content-providers." Moments later, it popped up under United Airlines company news as a headline only: "United Airlines files for Ch. 11 to cut costs."
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