Fox News host Sean Hannity’s high-speed Twitter account disappeared for a few hours on Saturday before reappearing, and as detailed below, Hannity had no problem encouraging accusations that the “deep state” was responsible for the internet mystery. Some also wondered whether or not, as was the case with President Trump’s 11-minute vanishing act last November on the social media platform, a rogue employee might be to blame.
https://twitter.com/BrennaSimonSays/status/957151638233518080
This caused a far-right furor, which is easily summarized by InfoWars host Alex Jones tweet-accusation that the “Deep State” panicked and eliminated Hannity after an “eerie tweet.” (Snopes also notes that deep-state buzzings accelerated during Hannity’s strange hiatus with some wondering if government agents were secretly working to destroy the ardent Trump supporter’s visibility.)
The Deep State is in panic! Hannity disappears from Twitter after eerie tweet.
https://t.co/w3kS77EzzN— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) January 27, 2018
The cryptic tweet in question, which has now been deleted from Hannity’s account, read “Form Submission 1649.” The tweet was screencapped by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose own account briefly disappeared a month ago (although some suspected he purposely deactivated it himself). Assange appeared to find it suspicious that “[t]he most watched TV host in the U.S.” saw his account “mysteriously disappear.”
The most watched TV host in the U.S., @SeanHannity has his Twitter account (3.3 million followers) mysteriously disappear after tweeting "Submission Form 1649" https://t.co/jIw0Lq5K1m pic.twitter.com/Op3b2h24Zu
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) January 27, 2018
Some outlets dug into possible meetings of “Form Submission 1649” and came up short, so the tweet’s meaning (if there was one) remains fodder for more conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Twitter confirmed to the Washington Post that the account was “briefly compromised,” and Hannity had given them permission to disclose this although “we normally do not discuss individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons.”
On Saturday night, Hannity made his triumphant return with a pair of tweets. He thanked his “twitter friends for all of your support,” and he promised that folks “[c]an’t get rid of me that easy. Too much work to do exposing #deepstategate.” He then promised, “Monday’s a big day…tick tock.”
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/957404954976768000
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/957430270168326149
Tune in on Monday for more high-speed police-chase videos on Hannity!