Legendary investor and philanthropic billionaire George Soros has died, according to Reuters and the social media outlets that first reported the news tonight.
Fortunately for Soros and unfortunately for the credibility of social media’s news-breaking faculties, there is no legitimate death to report.
At 5:41 p.m. Eastern on Thursday afternoon, the 162-year-old news agency accidentally published reporter Todd Eastham’s prewritten obituary for Soros, complete with dummy text for the place and time of his future death.
J.K. Trotter of The Atlantic Wire was quick to pounce.
As Reuters’ own Matthew Keys wrote on Twitter, “George Soros is living every man’s dream: Reading what people might say about him at his funeral.”
In recent years, industry notables from Bill Gates to Eddie Murphy have been subjected to either erroneous death reports or outright Twitter death hoaxes.