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:
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.