The pardoning of an infamous dark web marketplace owner has allowed us to learn exactly how he kept his social media updated despite being in prison for over 11 years.
Social media lets people keep others up to date with their lives, sharing intriguing thoughts and fragments of their day-to-day business, yet what happens to your accounts if you happen to be arrested and put in prison?
For many that results in a total blackout, where posting ceases for the duration of the sentence, but others use somewhat ingenious ways to maintain their online profile, and it might just have helped them get out of prison early.
Advert
Ross Ulbricht was arrested in 2013, and sentenced to double life imprisonment plus 40 years without the possibility of parole in May 2015 under the charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics conspiracy, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking, among others.
All of this was due to his role in the creation and operation of dark web marketplace Silk Road, which he began in 2011.
As reported by Ars Technica, Ulbricht wrote in his journal regarding Silk Road: "The idea was to create a website where people could buy anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could lead back to them."
Advert
While you could purchase 'normal' items like art, books, and clothes on Silk Road, the main thing on its digital shelves was that of the illegal variety - in particular drugs, which dominated the site.
Customers would use Bitcoin in order to pay for products due to its unregulated nature, and while the site was largely anonymous, that didn't stop Ulbricht from being arrested and eventually charged.
However, almost immediately after his inauguration US President Donald Trump laid out a number of presidential pardons, and Ulbricht's name was among the names on the list after spending 4,130 days in prison.
He shortly posted a video to his X account thanking President Trump for his pardon, but you might notice that there isn't any wild gaps on the account, and he appears to have been tweeting throughout most of his prison time - and it didn't take long for him to reveal how he managed this.
Advert
"I accidentally deleted my last post about taking over the account," Ulbricht outlines. "6.5 years ago my wife created this X account to give me my voice back. All this time, she relayed my messages to you word for word.
"Starting now, MY fingertips are on the keyboard! Here we are, one week after my release, our prayers are finally answered."
Advert
His previous posts include celebrations for holidays like New Year, Christmas, and Thanksgiving, alongside intriguing tidbits like how he'd been "running a civilization-style game for my fellow prisoners."
It goes to show that it's not always some complex or fancy mechanism that allows even those charged with criminal hacking to access social media while locked away. Sometimes all you need is simply someone on the outside to be your voice for you.