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
According to RT ,theories have propagated online that the code is actually a “dead man’s switch” to release WikiLeaks information if something drastic were to befall Assange.
John Kerry ending encryption key, dead man's switch from Julian Assange? https://t.co/mrzh1Fwtmp
— Corey (@tubebuzzer) October 17, 2016
I'm ignorant about this but @wikileaks seemingly just released 3 codes to unlock posted files. Dead man's switch? Did they "get" Assange?
— Tom Angell 🌳📰ⓥ (@tomangell) October 16, 2016
Assange apparently dumped A LOT of Wikileaks at once making people think his "dead man trigger" had been activated.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) October 17, 2016
https://twitter.com/noopdoggy5/status/787802935342174208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Speculation about the numbers was also rife on Reddit.
“I hope he isn’t dead. This does look like an emergency dead man’s switch,” a Redditer said.
Meanwhile, one person asked: “The mythical Dead man’s key?”
“I am hearing that Ecuador has caved to Clinton & Co,” another person speculated.
A pre-commitment hash is not a dead man's switch. This is just #Assange trying to get some drama out of emails. https://t.co/4SAqPoqq33
— anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) October 17, 2016
Appears those codes were indeed Assange's "dead man's switch".
Word is he alive but internet has been cut.#Wikileaks https://t.co/0EwSjKXpMf— Bruce Porter, Jr. (@NetworksManager) October 17, 2016
There have been no official reports of Assange’s death or indeed any of his removal from the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has been staying for the past four years as he fights extradition to Sweden.
Clues to the swathe of potential meanings to the numbers appear to lie in the tweets themselves and the word “Precommitment.”
Precommitment is a practice in cryptography to provide proof that any future leaks have not been tampered with.
For example, judging by the latest WikiLeaks tweets, any future WikiLeaks download of documents involving Secretary of State John Kerry is likely to contain the “Pre-commitment 1” tweet code as proof of their authenticity.
The codes come amid more WikiLeaks drama, including claims Assange’s internet access had been “intentionally severed” by a state party and the release of over 12,000 hacked emails from Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta.
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