Reuters accidentally published a pre-written obituary for George Soros on Thursday afternoon, declaring that the business titan had died at the ripe old age of "XXX."
Soros is alive and 82 years old, as a spokesperson confirmed to Quartz soon after.
The obituary recapped Soros' years as an investor and financier, while detailing his massive wealth, which is estimated to be $19 billion in total. New agencies frequently write framework obituaries for aging, prominent citizens years ahead of their eventual deaths, so it's likely that someone at Reuters simply hit "publish" by accident. But that still didn't stop the false story from becoming an immediate hot topic online, and Soros' name became a worldwide Twitter trend.
Reuters posted this tweet after noticing the mistake:
Reuters published an obituary of George Soros in error. Reuters withdrew the article as soon as it appeared.— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 18, 2013
Many people still said they could access the article, however. And even after it had come down -- more than an hour after its initial publication -- entering "George Soros" into Google produced this results page:
So, to recap: George Soros is alive.