WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s Twitter account was inaccessible for about an hour on Monday. Assange did not explain the disappearance of his Twitter handle in any of the tweets he posted after the account was back online. Twitter has not yet issued a statement either.
Users who tried to search for Assange’s account between 5.30 am and 6.30 am Indian time on Monday got the message “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!”, according to Gizmodo.
It is not yet clear whether Assange himself deactivated his account or Twitter did so. Trying to access accounts suspended by Twitter normally shows the message “Account suspended”.
Another account, which has now been suspended, claimed that Assange’s account had been deleted by Twitter ahead of a story he was planning to publish, CBS News reported.
Before the account went offline, Assange had not tweeted since Friday.
This is similar to an incident in November, when United States President Donald Trump’s account was deactivated for about 11 minutes. Twitter then said an employee had deactivated the account on his last day at work. The employee himself admitted to the action later, but said it was a “mistake”.
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