Spooks at GCHQ have been snooping on our tweets for years, but now members of the public who use Twitter can see theirs following the launch of the surveillance agency’s first official account.
More than 10 years after Twitter began, GCHQ dipped its public toe into the social networking water with the words “hello, world” just after 11am on Monday.
Hello, world. https://t.co/SROtSsE8KB
— GCHQ (@GCHQ) May 16, 2016
Within half an hour of its verified feed, the GCHQ account attracted more than 2,000 followers.
GCHQ is late to the official social media party by the standards of international security services.
Its US equivalent, the National Security Agency, has been running an account since December 2013. The Central Intelligence Agency launched its account almost two years ago with a memorable first message.
We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.
— CIA (@CIA) June 6, 2014
The move is part of an effort to make the secretive Cheltenham listening post slightly more transparent and improve its public image after Edward Snowden revealed the industrial scale of mass surveillance by it and the NSA.
The account launch is reported to have come after months of discussion. While ministers and diplomats have been encouraged to tweet for years, the security establishment has been reluctant to follow suit. Neither MI6 nor MI5 has an official Twitter account.
But GCHQ’s director, Robert Hannigan, has a brief to restore public trust in the agency. Andrew Pike, the director of communications at GCHQ, said: “In joining social media, GCHQ can use its own voice to talk directly about the important work we do in keeping Britain safe.”
The initial reaction to the account was of mockery, including from the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.
After years of following us, we can now follow them! 😏 https://t.co/3hWgRbyjbg
— John Prescott (@johnprescott) May 16, 2016
Duncan Weldon, the head of research at the Resolution Foundation, wondered how users would react if GCHQ started following them on Twitter.
"@GCHQ is now following you" is going to really freak some people out. https://t.co/ZoLmhUcaOQ
— Duncan Weldon (@DuncanWeldon) May 16, 2016
The former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story of Snowden’s revelations, noted the irony of GCHQ’s attempt to win public trust after previously trying to suppress news of its existence.
Remember when UK Govt prosecuted journalist Duncan Campbell & expelled Mark Hosenball for revealing your existence? https://t.co/LlXWyY2h7I
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 16, 2016
In a statement, GCHQ acknowledged that it had been a late adopter of Twitter.
“We know that some will say we’re joining the Twitter party slightly late, but we’re the first intelligence agency in the UK to do this and it’s a big step for the organisation as we become more open about the work we do to keep Britain safe,” it said.
“Some things have to stay secret, sorry, so we won’t be providing intelligence updates or giving away tradecraft.
“We want GCHQ to be more accessible and to help the public understand more about our work. We also want to reach out to the technical community and add our voice to social media conversations about technology, maths, cybersecurity and other topics where we have a view.”
It explained that “hello, world” was one of the first phrases that students of computer coding learn to write. “As a technical organisation with computing at its core, it resonated with many of our staff, who have learnt to program during their career,” GCHQ said.
• This article was amended on 16 May 2016 to remove the statement that blocking GCHQ on Twitter would make it more difficult for the organisation to legally spy on a user.
