Stratcom Twitter manager leaves his at-home work station and panic ensues: ';l;;gmlxzssaw'
‘;l;;gmlxzssaw,’ The viral tweet From Stratcom, that controls U.S. nuclear arsenal, was sent by a ‘small child’
A confusing and unintelligible tweet released by U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) Sunday night drew ridicule and thousands of shares on Twitter after the military arm tweeted “;l;;gmlxzssaw.” The garbled message, released at 7:48 p.m. ET, received more than 11,000 retweets and hundreds of comments before it was deleted roughly half an hour later.
Stratcom initially put out an apology tweet, writing “Apologizes for any confusion. Please disregard this post.” Soon after, their apology tweet was also deleted, prompting further questions from already confused Twitter users.
The bizarre message drew speculation that it was the military’s inadvertent release of the ‘nuclear launch codes,’ jokes that a cat was allowed on the keyboard and suggestions that the message was meant for extraterrestrial viewers.
After waves of potential theories sparked online, the Daily Dot solved the mystery, reporting that a small child was responsible for the viral “;l;;gmlxzssaw” message which sent Twitter into a conspiratorial tailspin.
Filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with Stratcom, The Daily Dot “learned that a small child had produced the tweet,” the outlet posted on its webpage.
“Filed a FOIA request with U.S. Strategic Command to see if I could learn anything about their gibberish tweet yesterday,” wrote MikaelThalen of The Daily Dot. “Turns out their Twitter manager left his computer unattended, resulting in his ‘very young child’ commandeering the keyboard.”
Every day, scores of US military commands reach millions with posts aimed to inform and inspire: videos of valor, motivational photos, and, yes, puppy pics.
The military has codified the rules for managing these official accounts. But sometimes these social-media pros - even those at the four-star command responsible for the US's nuclear weapons - fail miserably.
Here's a rundown of some of the military's most embarrassing, troubling, and dumb social-media mistakes in recent years.
The blunder received lots of humorous responses on social media, including a retired US Army lieutenant general.
This isn’t the first time an official military Twitter account has embarrassed the service it represents. An administrator used Fort Bragg's official Twitter account to send explicit sexual messages to an OnlyFans creator.
The Army installation initially claimed the account was hacked before deleting not just the tweets but its entire Twitter account. The base later acknowledged that the tweets were sent by one of their own.
USSTRATCOM stressed that Monday’s tweet was not the result of a hacking incident. “Absolutely nothing nefarious occurred, i.e., no hacking of our Twitter account,” the FOIA response noted. “The post was discovered and notice to delete it occurred telephonically.”
The original tweet of “;l;;gmlxzssaw” also received some sympathy messages, including from Canada’s military, which tweeted: ‘These things happen. This might even happen to you one day. It’s okay, folks.’”
Interestingly enough, this wasn’t the first time that Stratcom’s Twitter feed has stirred controversy. Stratcom, which is in charge of the military’s nuclear forces and deterring missile attacks, in 2018 was criticized for a New Year’s Eve tweet joking about dropping bombs.
“#TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball…if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,” Stratcom tweeted. They later apologized, saying that the tweet was in “poor taste.”