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It was reported today that

Ecuador’s government is cutting off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s communications outside the nation’s London embassy.

Officials announced Wednesday they were taking the measure in response to Assange’s recent activity on social media.

As part of an agreement between Assange and the Ecuadorean government, he is not permitted to send any messages that could interfere with the South American nation’s relations with other countries.

What has Assange communicated (if at all) to justify, or at least to trigger, this action?

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The BBC thinks that it was in regards to Tweets about the poisoning of Skripal:

The move is to prevent the WikiLeaks founder from interfering in other countries' affairs, Ecuador said.

It comes after Mr Assange questioned accusations that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in the UK on 4 March.

The UK took this rather badly, which is probably why Ecuador is worried about it.

The tweets in question are still available.

However, this is only an assumption. The statement by Ecuador does not reference any specific tweets or other communications.

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  • A Spanish newspaper (in Spanish) adds a reference to a tweet by Assange comparing Puigdemont (former President of Catalonia) detention in Germany to that of Lluis Companys (another former President of Catalonia) by the Gestapo in 1940. That must have raised some anger, both in Spain and Germany. And it remarks that the agreement not to interfere was signed in december, shortly after Assange was very local in favor of the independence movement in Catalonia.
    – SJuan76
    Mar 28, 2018 at 18:57
  • @SJuan76: Very vocal, you mean. But - this seems strange. I mean, Assange has always been outspoken on many issues, annoying many states in the world. If up until now that had been accepted, why the chance? I mean, he wasn't commenting on any interaction involving Ecuador.
    – einpoklum
    Mar 28, 2018 at 20:35
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    Yes, I meant vocal, thank you. And given that Assange is someone with nowhere to go and an internet connection, it is reasonable to think that he has posted lots of things and that some of them have not been liked in parts of the world, so probably there are lots of possible candidates as the reason for this (or all of them weighted in). Anyway, the article also mentions that the current President of Ecuador (inaugurated in May 2017) does not want to directly evict Assange but is way far less comfortable with the situation than the former President (who was the one who granted asylum) was.
    – SJuan76
    Mar 28, 2018 at 21:00
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According to Wikileaks, the official reason is for criticizing the detainment of the Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont.

The Wikileaks twitter account tweeted on March 28th:

Wikileaks editor @julianassange has been gagged and isolated by order of Ecuador's new president @Lenin Moreno. He cannot tweet, speak to the press, recieve visitors or make telephone calls. Ecuador demanded that he remove the following Tweet:

The tweet in question by the twitter account of Julian Assange from March 26th:

In 1940 the elected president of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, was captured by the Gestapo, at the request of Spain, delivered to them and executed. Today, German police have arrested the elected president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, at the request of Spain, to be extradited.

However, on March 29th, the Wikileaks twitter account later claimed:

Although Ecuador claims it isolated Assange over his Tweeting about the detention of #Piugdmont in Germany, the political context is his breaking the "Watergate" of Ecudor, #HackingTeam, which led to the implosion of the national spy service this month

Whether or not Wikileaks is a trustworthy source in this matter is up for the reader to decide.

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  • Last quote is the crux of the answer. Barring evidence to the contrary, I accept.
    – einpoklum
    Mar 29, 2018 at 9:18

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