The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has made its first public foray into the world of social media by opening official accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
In its opening tweet, the CIA joked about the clandestine nature of their work, and sent the Twittersphere into a frenzy with over 150,000 retweets and 85,000 favourites:
We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.
— CIA (@CIA) June 6, 2014
Within the first few hours, the agency had amassed 230,000 followers on Twitter, which many noted is a lot fewer people than they track on any particular day.
Discussing the opening of social media accounts, CIA Director John Brennan said:
“By expanding to these platforms, CIA will be able to more directly engage with the public and provide information on CIA’s mission, history, and other developments.
“We have important insights to share, and we want to make sure that unclassified information about the Agency is more accessible to the American public that we serve, consistent with our national security mission.”
