Is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Dead…and what do those strange emails mean?

Could it be that Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange is dead?

The internet is awash with rumors that he has been assassinated, sparked by three cryptic messages posted on the official WikiLeaks Twitter account.

The twitter messages refer to US Secretary of State John Kerry, Ecuador and the UK Foreign Office and each contain a long series of numbers and lowercase letters.

Social media users have speculated that they may be a “dead man’s switch” which was automatically triggered following the death of Assange.

Coded

It is believed that prominent figures who fear for their lives, have programmed their communication channels to send out coded messages upon their deaths which make sense only to a select few people.

The speculation was increased because immediately after the mystery messages were posted, WikiLeaks tweeted: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans.”

All four messages have since been retweeted several thousand times by followers of Mr Assange.

pre-commitment 1: John Kerry 4bb96075acadc3d80b5ac872874c3037a386f4f595fe99e687439aabd0219809

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 16, 2016

pre-commitment 2: Ecuador
eae5c9b064ed649ba468f0800abf8b56ae5cfe355b93b1ce90a1b92a48a9ab72

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 16, 2016

pre-commitment 3: UK FCO f33a6de5c627e3270ed3e02f62cd0c857467a780cf6123d2172d80d02a072f74

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 16, 2016

Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 17, 2016

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than three years to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex assault allegations.

He fears that if he is deported to Sweden he could then be extradited to the US to face charges over WikiLeaks’ activities.

Concerns about his safety intensified earlier this month after it emerged that Hillary Clinton allegedly asked whether the US military could “drone” Mr Assange whilst she was Secretary of State.

In addition WikiLeaks has repeatedly vowed to release information which it says could torpedo the Democrat nominee’s bid for the White House.

False

In response to the speculation, WikiLeaks volunteer Kelly Kolisnik tweeted a message denying that their founder was dead.

The tweet said: “Julian Assange is alive and well. Rumors circulating that he tweeted out a ‘Dead Mans’ switch are completely false and baseless.”

The problem is, that for now at least, the denial has had little effect on stopping the online social media rumor mill.

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