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U.S. Navy Apologizes After ‘Inadvertent’ Tweet About Julian Assange

Rachel StockmanDec 25th, 2017, 12:04 pm
 

An odd sequence of events happened this morning, and it all surrounds the twitter account of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. First, overnight, his official Twitter account disappeared on all social media platforms. It was reactivated this morning. It is unclear if this is something that Twitter did, or if Assange deleted his account himself. Assange’s twitter account reappeared and then tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/945303512430333952

Then, an even odder thing happened. This morning, the U.S. Navy apparently inadvertently tweeted out Assange’s name, and then quickly deleted it, but not before Wikileaks was able to get a screenshot.

The Navy later explained:

“This morning an inadvertent keystroke by an authorized user of the U.S. Navy Office of Information’s Digital Media Engagement Team caused the trending term “Julian Assange” to be tweeted from the Navy’s official Twitter account,” explained a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy. Apparently, this happened when the the U.S. Navy personnel was reviewing trending topics. #JulianAssange was on the list because his twitter account briefly disappeared on Christmas Eve.

The official account of Wikileaks was quick to pick up on the oddities, but claimed that Julian Assange’s “physical situation at the embassy remains unaltered–confined without charge in violation of two UN rulings requiring the UK to set him free.”

This is a developing situation. Law&Crime will update with more information as we get it. 

 

 

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Rachel Stockman - President / On Air Host

Rachel Stockman is President of Law&Crime which includes Law&Crime Productions, Law&Crime Network and LawAndCrime.com. Under her watch, the company has grown from just a handful of people to a robust production company and network producing dozens of true crime shows a year in partnership with major networks. She also currently serves as Executive Producer of Court Cam, a hit show on A&E, and I Survived a Crime, a new crime show premiering on A&E this fall. She also oversees production of a new daily syndicated show Law&Crime Daily, which is produced in conjunction with Litton Entertainment. In addition to these shows, her network and production company produce programs for Facebook Watch, Cineflix and others. She has spent years covering courts and legal issues, and was named Atlanta Press Club's 'Rising Star' in 2014. Rachel graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and Yale Law School.

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