“Hello, world”: GCHQ joins Twitter and no one can handle it

It’s official – GCHQ has joined Twitter, making it the first of the UK’s three spy agencies to do so. Publicly, anyway. They’ve been snooping on your cat memes for years.

The intelligence giant, which specialises in tracking digital communications, hopes to pad out its feed with “news, updates, and opinions” – ‘Snowden sux lol’, right?

In a statement, Andrew Pike, 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.”

In a bid to finally appeal to the wider public, GCHQ’s first tweet was a programming joke. Kids love those, we hear.

Check it out:

https://twitter.com/statuses/ 732149091476639745

^{Government Communications Headquarters a.k.a the donut}

Of course, it wasn’t long before many started to notice the irony of GCHQ joining Twitter. After all, GCHQ has almost certainly been following what’s happening on our Twitter pages before we ever had a chance to follow back.

Here are some of the best early tweets:

https://twitter.com/statuses/732159730072850432

https://twitter.com/statuses/732157051149930496

https://twitter.com/statuses/732154304744833025

https://twitter.com/statuses/732152123866132480

https://twitter.com/statuses/732151805627510784

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https://twitter.com/statuses/732151013789040640

https://twitter.com/statuses/732151325631389696

https://twitter.com/statuses/732171882724794368

https://twitter.com/statuses/732174819660337152

https://twitter.com/statuses/732180182958784512

https://twitter.com/statuses/732159646832676864

After that banter-fest, we’re not convinced MI5 and MI6 will be hopping aboard the Twitter train any time soon.

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Have you followed GCHQ yet? Do they follow you? Let us know in the comments.