GCHQ launches a Twitter account after years of reading your tweets without one
GCHQ, the UK’s online surveillance unit, has launched a Twitter account in a bid to cultivate transparency in an era where such agencies are seen to intrude on the privacy on the public.
On Monday morning (16 May) the agency issued its first tweet in a bid to put a more friendly face on the agency that has been long monitoring social media traffic to detect national threats.
Hello, world. https://t.co/SROtSsE8KB
— GCHQ (@GCHQ) May 16, 2016
To date, the account follows 28 individuals, including the Queen of England and fictional spy Daniel Craig’s James Bond and was welcomed into the fold by the CIA.
Welcome to Twitter @GCHQ! https://t.co/EmD8hGMRBv
— CIA (@CIA) May 16, 2016
The move comes a week after Twitter told third party social media analytics company Dataminr to stop providing user data to intelligence agencies, such as the CIA.