During a particularly contentious Democratic debate on February 19 2020, rumors circulated on Twitter and Facebook that a mischievous Wikipedia user had edited Michael Bloomberg’s page and indicated he “died” — due to wounds sustained in the course of being attacked by Elizabeth Warren:
Political reporter Josh Robin said someone “futzed with” Wikipedia, including the above screenshot. In it, after “born,” it suggested Bloomberg “died” on February 19 2019, with his “cause of death” listed and linked as “Senator Elizabeth Warren.”
In the tweet’s replies, another Twitter user asserted the page had been “updated” to change 2019 to 2020:
In reporting on the purported edits to Wikipedia’s Mike Bloomberg page, one news outlet suggested that a similar edit had been added to say that Bloomberg had been “stabbed by Warren, [Joe] Biden and [Bernie] Sanders”:
Other news organizations reported on discourse about the page, but without mentioning the screenshots.
We searched revisions to Bloomberg’s Wikipedia page made on February 20 2020, and located one of the claimed revisions:
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DQUACK02 (talk | contribs) at 04:38, 20 February 2020. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
That one indeed showed “getting stabbed by Warren, Biden, and Sanders”:
Born Michael Rubens Bloomberg
February 14, 1942 (age 78)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died February 19, 2020 (aged 78)
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Cause of death Getting stabbed by Warren, Biden and Sanders
Screenshots of Mike Bloomberg’s supposedly and temporarily vandalized Wikipedia page including a “death” date and debate-related cause of death existed in Wikipedia’s revisions. The edit above was visible for three minutes before another Wikipedia user removed the “died February 19 2020” information from the page.