CIA Only Follows One Non-US Account on Twitter

The U.K.'s Government Communications Headquarters, an intelligence and security agency, joined Twitter today. Among its new social media friends, it now counts fictional martini-drinking spy 007, and a fellow intelligence organization: the U.S. CIA.

CIA has been active on Twitter since 2014, tweeting historical facts and tidbits from its museum, and occasionally getting a bit weird. It follows 28 accounts on Twitter at time of writing, and until now, all were verified U.S. offices, arms and agencies like the U.S. Army, the National Security Agency and the White House, as well as Twitter’s government and election account. Today, CIA followed the GCHQ, its first foreign follow.

GCHQ tweeted its first message today at 11 a.m. U.K. time, a reference to basic program-language learning:

Hello, world. https://t.co/SROtSsE8KB

— GCHQ (@GCHQ) May 16, 2016

Like any good social media friends, members of the U.S. intelligence community gave the agency a warm welcome:

Welcome to Twitter @GCHQ! https://t.co/EmD8hGMRBv

— CIA (@CIA) May 16, 2016

Welcome @GCHQ! https://t.co/ObevXy1PAk

— NSA/CSS (@NSAGov) May 16, 2016

“We know that some will say we’re joining the Twitter party slightly late, but we’re the first intelligence agency in the U.K. to do this,” says a GCHQ spokesperson. The agency says it will tweet job opportunities, “mission outcomes” and puzzles.

We’ve reached out to CIA and will update the post with any comment.