Updated March 31st, 2021 at 12:34 IST
US Nuclear Command's cryptic tweet was posted by 'very young child'; here's how
“;l;;gmlxzssaw,” a cryptic tweet by the official account of the US Strategic Command sent internet sleuths into a frenzy over it being a nuclear launch code.
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A cryptic tweet by the official account of the US Strategic Command sent internet sleuths into a frenzy over it being a nuclear launch code among other speculations. The March 29 tweet by US Strategic Command also made some believe that it was a signal to political conspiracists. The US Strategic Command that runs the nation’s powerful nuclear weapons force, eventually clarified that the enigmatic posting on Twitter was the doing of a precocious kid.
The garbled post that appeared on Sunday on the agency’s official Twitter account went viral almost immediately with thousands of likes and comments. Several Twitter users also joked that a cat walked across the keyboard. Further, as per reports the unintelligible tweet also circulated among the QAnon crowd and others believed that it was a secret message. Eventually, the cryptic was deleted shortly after with US Strategic Command issuing another response to the tweet and clarified, “Apologizes [sic] for any confusion. Please disregard this post.”
US Strategic Command sends secret message. Who is it for⁉️ Is it signaling the military to seize the Capitol and arrest Biden Harris and the swamp creatures: Pelosi, Schumer, Waters, Schiff, and the Obamas⁉️. 🤷♂️🤦♂️✝️🗽🇺🇲 pic.twitter.com/Vvj4mVFu1h
— 𝓢𝓪𝓶 𝓢𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓿 🇺🇸 National Security Advisor (@SamSenev)
By any chance, is she in touch with US Strategic Command? pic.twitter.com/1E7HL1JJTW
— David Clough (@David_Clough1)
The reason behind the tweet
Owning up to the gibberish tweet and explaining the reason behind it, US Straytcom said that the work was not that of a hacker but of a small saboteur. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Daily Dot, the US agency said that the account’s manager had left the account momentarily open and unattended. That’s when, according to the statement, the manager’s “very young child” took advantage and started playing with the keys. US Stratcom also dismissed the speculations of hacking and other concerns.
The Command’s Twitter manager, while in telework status, momentarily left the Command’s Twitter account open and unattended,” the statement to the outlet said. “His very young child took advantage of the situation and started playing with the keys and unfortunately, and unknowingly, posted the tweet.”
It added, “Absolutely nothing nefarious occurred, i.e., no hacking of our Twitter account. The post was discovered and notice to delete it occurred telephonically.”
Filed a FOIA request with U.S. Strategic Command to see if I could learn anything about their gibberish tweet yesterday.
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen)
Turns out their Twitter manager left his computer unattended, resulting in his "very young child" commandeering the keyboard. pic.twitter.com/KR07PCyCUM
Image credits: Twitter
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Published March 31st, 2021 at 12:34 IST