US Strategic Command, which is in charge of the military’s nuclear forces and deterring missile attacks, has explained a recent cryptic tweet it made with seemingly random letters and symbols that it deleted shortly after.
USSTRATCOM’s Freedom of Information Act official said that a child of a person responsible for the Strategic Command’s Twitter account, who was working remotely, briefly got access to it and “unfortunately, and unknowingly, posted the tweet”, the Daily Dot has learned, after requesting the clarification from the military body.
“His very young child took advantage of the situation and started playing with the keys and unfortunately, and unknowingly, posted the tweet.”
USSTRATCOM stressed that there was “no hacking” of their Twitter account.
Filed a FOIA request with U.S. Strategic Command to see if I could learn anything about their gibberish tweet yesterday.
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) March 29, 2021
Turns out their Twitter manager left his computer unattended, resulting in his "very young child" commandeering the keyboard. pic.twitter.com/KR07PCyCUM
Previously, the top US military combatant command, responsible for nuclear forces and strategic deterrence, sent shockwaves across the net by tweeting a gibberish message: “;l;;gmlxzssaw”.
USSTRATCOM deleted it shortly after and issued a misspelled apology in a follow-up tweet, asking people to disregard the post.
Twitterati did not disregard the post, with some of them still wondering what it meant and if it was a nuclear launch code. Others just roasted them for the apparent online gaffe, misspelling “apologies” afterwards, and for following up the weird post instead of just deleting it.