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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange's Twitter Account mysteriously disappeared on Christmas Day, and then later reappeared, with zero explanation as to what happened to it. The notorious Australian computer programmer and asylum resident of the Ecuadorian embassy in London became internationally famous in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaked documents provided by former United States Army officer Chelsea Manning.
The last thing Assange posted before his account disappeared was on Friday, and it was a quote of himself.
https://t.co/1hv7Lgz3CD— Defend Assange Campaign (@Defend Assange Campaign)1513938310.0
It would seem that Assange deleted his Twitter account on Christmas morning, which threw his supporters into a frenzy of speculation.
CENSORSHIP? Julian Assange Vanishes Off Twitter A source who works closely with WikiLeaks told the Gateway Pundit… https://t.co/qGuwIAl4xH— Cassandra Fairbanks (@Cassandra Fairbanks)1514176826.0
Had Twitter banned Julian Assange?
Speculation went so far as to wildly suggest that the WikiLeaks founder had been murdered.
Julian Assange was kicked of twitter today cuz he dared to expose the Dem party and the Clinton crime family. Let’s… https://t.co/gYAJ0oN4JA— Larry (@Larry)1514178170.0
More than likely the account was not suspended...
@CassandraRules When you visit the former profile of a suspended account you see this. https://t.co/t3jWBql2kn— Ryan Moore (@Ryan Moore)1514184064.0
...but instead, the account was deleted from Assange's own computer.
The WikiLeaks account remained present on Twitter. But a search for the personal account @JulianAssange turned up this message: "Sorry that page does not exist!"
This would suggest that it was deleted on his end, rather than suspended by Twitter, as a suspended account redirects to a different message. Then with zero explanation, Julian Assange's Twitter account reappeared later on that same Monday morning.
The first two tweets following the account's reemergence online featured a cartoon of Santa Claus returning WikiLeaks to his "Good" list, and a request for donations attached to a video of an adorable corgi.
That is one anxious and excited corgi.
Was the United States Navy complicit in the account's mysterious disappearance?
Later on Christmas Day, Assange shared a post from the WikiLeaks Twitter account. It seems the United States Navy is monitoring Julian Assange related activity on Twitter, and a supposedly "inadvertent keystroke" caused their Twitter account to tweet out "Julian Assange."
Despite some oddities from the US Navy and Twitter today and increased physical surveillance @JulianAssange's physi… https://t.co/2ESa35z10D— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks)1514220593.0
@aavelle This morning, an inadvertent keystroke by an authorized user of the U.S. Navy Office of Information's Digi… https://t.co/jxPU8pW788— U.S. Navy (@U.S. Navy)1514218676.0
An inadvertent keystroke.
The big mystery may be no more than Julian Assange accidentally clicking something and not realizing it until later, as the US Navy Twitter account claims the same happening to them. The nature of its non-appearance and the particular message that appeared when it was searched for suggested it was a manual deletion rather than a suspension imposed by Twitter.
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h/t: Twitter