‘Hello, world’: GCHQ, Twitter and social media engagement

ABSTRACT

In May 2016, Britain’s signals intelligence agency the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) joined the social media platform Twitter to considerable press fanfare. But to date, no analysis has been undertaken regarding the use and outcomes of social media by the agency - once referred to as Britain's 'most secret'. This article posits that, while the use of social media has allowed the agency to reach out to a new tech-savvy generation, its presence on the platform can sometimes stoke and amplify conspiracy theories affecting issues such as brand identity as GCHQ adopts a new, media friendly approach.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank colleagues and anonymous friends who helped inspire research in this field.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In addition to sites at Cheltenham, Scarborough, Bude, Harrogate and London, GCHQ announced the location of a new Manchester facility in October 2019. Located in an inner-city location, GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming said the Manchester hub was a ‘unique and exciting opportunity to draw on the talents of one of the most diverse cities in the UK … This is a major event for GCHQ and I am particularly delighted to be able to announce it in our Centenary year’ (‘Location of new GCHQ site in Manchester revealed’, https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/location-of-new-gchq-site-in-manchester-revealed).

2. Margetts, “E-Government in Britain,” 250–65.

3. Dunleavy et al., Digital era governance; and Margetts and Dunleavy, “The Second Wave of Digital-Era Governance.”

4. Janssen and Estevez, “Lean Government and Platform-Based Governance,” S1–S8.

5. See for example Linders, “From e-Government to We-Government,” 446–454.

6. Social media impression management and branding have been widely applied across range of government and political sphere. See, for example: Bullock, (Re) Presenting ‘Order’ Online,” 345–59; DePaula, Dincelli and Harrison, “Toward a Typology of Government Social Media Communication,” 98–108; Jackson and Lilleker, “Microblogging, Constituency Service and Impression Management,” 86–105; Lilleker, “Interactivity and branding,” 111–28; and Marland, Lewis and Flanagan, “Governance in the age of digital media and branding,” 125–41.

7. Song and Lee, “Citizens’ Use of Social Media in Government, Perceived Transparency, and Trust in Government,” 430–453.

8. Government Digital Service (2018) Social Media Playbook. Available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/social-media-playbook.

9. Omand, Bartlett and Miller, “Introducing Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT),” 803. See also Dover, “SOCMINT.”

10. See also Omand, Bartlett and Miller, #Intelligence. For a wider study of OSINT, read Anthony Olcott, Open Source Intelligence in a Networked World.

11. Omand, Bartlett and Miller, #Intelligence, 11.

12. d’Ancona, Post Truth, 121.

13. On NCSC read Hannigan, “Organising a Government for Cyber” and the annual reports available from https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/annual-review-2019.

14. https://twitter.com/NCSC/status/1188542989137825793.

15. ‘“Hello, world”: GCHQ joins Twitter’ and Weaver, ‘“Hello, world”: GCHQ joins Twitter’.

16. https://twitter.com/johnprescott/status/732154481501192192 and Griffin, “GCHQ Joins Twitter and is Immediately Met with Jokes about Following People Online”; Tamplin, “GCHQ Join Twitter So People Got a Bit Paranoid.”

17. Jones, “Tinker, Tailor, Tweeter, Spy.”

18. Griffin, “GCHQ Joins Twitter.”

19. On the general history of GCHQ, read Aldrich, GCHQ and the forthcoming authorised history by Prof. John Ferris, Behind the Enigma: The authorised history of GCHQ, Britain’s secret cyber-intelligence agency (London: Bloomsbury, 2020). For a brief overview of the post-1989 changes, read Moran, “The Pursuit of Intelligence History,” 41–3.

20. See “Open Government Initiative.” https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open.

21. See Landon-Murray, “Social Media and U.S. Intelligence Agencies.”

22. Griggs, “The CIA Sends its First Tweet (Or Not).”

23. For an overview of the US intelligence community, read Richelson, The US Intelligence Community.

24. The DIA account has 160,000 followers. The NGA has over 70,000.

25. The combined total of the DNI, CIA, NSA, NGA and DI accounts. Figures accurate as of October 2019.

26. See Landon-Murray, “Social Media and U.S. Intelligence Agencies.”

27. On Britain’s changing approach read Moran, Classified, 329–49.

28. Broad, Markoff and Sanger, “Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iranian Nuclear Delay.”

29. Lee, Assante and Conway, Analysis of the Cyber Attack on the Ukrainian Power Grid.

30. Stoddart, “UK Cyber Security and Critical National Infrastructure Protection,” 1079–105; JCNSS, Cyber Security of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure: Third Report of Session 2017–19 of Commons/House of Lords: London. Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201719/jtselect/jtnatsec/1708/1708.pdf On the general threat read Puyvelde and Brantly, Cybersecurity: Politics, Governance and Conflict in Cyberspace.

31. “The Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative.” https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cybersecurity/national-initiative

32. For more information, see http://isc.independent.gov.uk/.

33. ISC. (2017). Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament: Annual Report 2016–2017, 86.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid., 40.

36. ISC. (2012). Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament: Annual Report 2011–2012, 67.

37. Laja, “GCHQ Offers ‘Retention Payments’ to Keep Technology Experts.’

38. On the cyber skills gap, read Hadley “How can we solve the UK’s cyber skills shortage.’”

39. HC. 1297, “Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament: Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Intelligence Community,” Open Government Licence, 18 July 2018.

40. “Diversity and Inclusion” https://www.dni.gov/index.php/how-we-work/diversity.

41. “Viewpoint: Was CIA ‘Too White’ to Spot 9/11 Clues?”

42. On diversity, or lack of it, in the CIA read Syed, Rebel Ideas.

43. See “Diversity and Inclusion.” https://www.asis.gov.au/About-Us/Diversity-and-Inclusion.html.

44. Launching the strategy, ASIO says that it is “committed to creating a diverse and inclusive professional environment, where all staff are valued and respected, in order to build a highly capable, innovative and adaptive workforce to achieve our purpose.” Details of the strategy can be found at “Diversity and Inclusion Strategy” https://www.asio.gov.au/diversity-and-inclusion-strategy.html

ASIO’s annual report for 2017–18 stated it was “committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where differences are valued and staff are respected and supported to be highly capable, innovative and adaptive. Creating this workforce and culture will ensure we are best placed to achieve our purpose” including the launch of an inclusion strategy, internal diversity networks, a recruitment drive targeted at minority groups and cultural awareness initiatives (ASIO submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security: Review of Administration and Expenditure, No. 17 (2017–18), 34).

45. ASIO Annual Report, 2018–9, 76–77 https://www.asio.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-19%20Annual%20Report%20WEB.pdf.

46. Sengupta, “MI5 Recruitment Drive will Focus on Asians.”

47. “Asian MI5 and MI6 Officers Speak.” The article also includes the experiences of two officers – one from MI5 and the other MI6 – and their views interviews with BBC Asian Network.

48. Read Leppard, “‘Racism’ at GCHQ is Undermining the Fight Against Terror.’ The claims were later discussed on BBC Radio 4’s “Minority Report: GCHQ” in November 2016.

49. See, HC 970, “Women in the UK Intelligence Community: A Report by the Intelligence and Security Committee,” March 5, 2015.

50. HC. 1297, 1.

51. Ibid., 5.

52. HC 970, 18, 19.

53. HC. 1297, 25–6.

54. Cm 9696, “Government response to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament Report on Diversity and Inclusion in the Intelligence Community,” 3.

55. “Intelligence Agency GCHQ Uses Xbox Live to Attract New Recruits.’

56. Sweeney, “‘Become a Spy” Ads Target Gamers” and Lawless, “Spy agency Goes Recruiting – in Video Games.”

57. Benedictus, “Shoreditch Spies” and “Spy Agency Facing Fines.”

58. “GCHQ Spy Agency Advertises Jobs for Gay Codebreakers.”

59. “MI6 First Ever Recruitment Video for Intelligence Officers.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOViUQwOgdU See also “New ‘Barbershop Advert’” https://www.sis.gov.uk/news/barbers-shop-advert.html.

60. Swerling, “MI6 Drive to Recruit Working Class Spies Sees it Named as one of the UK’s Best Employers for Social Mobility.”

61. “MI5 Named as a Best Employer for Race.” https://www.mi5.gov.uk/fa/node/549.

62. “Recruiting Diverse Talent to Protect Modern Britain” https://www.gchq.gov.uk/information/recruiting-diverse-talent-protect-modern-britain and Coughlan, ‘GCHQ sets up all-female cyber-training classes’. For background information on the history of BAME inclusion in the intelligence services, read Lomas, ‘‘Crocodiles in the Corridors’: Security Vetting, Race and Whitehall, 1945 – 1968ʹ.

63. On the campaign see, “Journey to GCHQ” and “The Digital Communications Awards results are in. But did we win?.”

64. Weaver, “‘Hello, World’: GCHQ joins Twitter.”

65. “GCHQ joins Instagram.” https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/gchq-joins-instagram.

66. Lambert, “Midlife Guide to … @GCHQ.” Despite the backlash, Snowden’s leaks had limited impact in the UK. In a TNS poll conducted following Snowden’s claims, 71 per cent of those responding said that government should prioritise security even if this ‘erodes peoples’ right to privacy’ (Jeffreys-Jones, We Know All About You, 222). In 2015 YouGov found 53 per cent of those sampled supported retention of data – voice calls, emails, texts, social media posts, and others – for 12 months, opposed by 31 per cent (don’t know 16) (see Dahlgreen, ‘Broad support for increased surveillance powers’). By 2017 another YouGov poll found 38 per cent supported government laws store data, opposed by 25 and 24 per cent ‘neither support nor oppose’ and 13 ‘don’t know’ (https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/guozfocn1q/YGC%2C%20GB%20Surveillance%202017.pdf). On Snowden’s claims and impact, read Corera, Intercept, 350–81.

67. “GCHQ Must Open Up.”

68. NCSC was not included in this list, as it is primarily a discrete part of GCHQ intended to provide cyber security to the public and the private sector and government.

69. See note above 8.

70. “GCHQ Reveals Secret London Site,” April 5, 2019. https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/gchq-reveals-secret-site-for-the-first-time.

71. On the visit, see Hallemann, “Queen Elizabeth Makes Her First Official Public Appearance of 2019.”

72. See Plait, “Chemtrails Conspiracy Theory Gets put to the Ultimate Test.”

73. On the claims and the rebuke see “Online Lies About Spies: How a Fake Letter Revived a Claim the UK Bugged Donald Trump.”

74. Allen, “GCHQ had a Brilliant Response.”

75. Griggs, “GCHQ Reaches Twitter Landmark.”

76. See “Latest MI5 Files Released” https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/latest-mi5-files-released/.

77. “Foreword by the Director General of the Security Service” in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, xvi.

78. Aaronovitch, Voodoo Histories, 13.

79. For a sympathetic discussion of the issues surrounding online surveillance and bulk data collection, read Omand and Phythian, Principled Spying, 142–169.

80. See note 75 above.

81. See note 17 above.

82. Wong, “How China Uses LinkedIn.”

83. The GCHQ Puzzle Book and The GCHQ Puzzle Book II.

84. See “The Equities Process,” November, 2019.

85. National Cyber Security Centre: Annual Review 2019, 6.

86. Lomas and Murphy, Intelligence and Espionage: Secrets and Spies, 94.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liam McLoughlin

Liam McLoughlin is a doctoral student at the University of Salford, and has recently submitted his PhD on political representation and social media in the UK. His research interests centre on political social media engagement and participation. He is also communications officer for the Political Studies Association Early Career Network (@psa_ecn).

Stephen Ward

Stephen Ward is a Reader in Politics at the University of Salford. His research interests centre on the use of internet and social media by political organisations notably around political campaigning, participation and mobilisation. He has over 60 publications focused on parties, MPs and public participation online.

Daniel W. B. Lomas

Daniel W. B. Lomas is author of Intelligence, Security and the Attlee Governments, 1945 – 1951 published by Manchester University Press (2016) and nominated for the 2018 Royal Historical Society’s Whitfield Prize, teaching on intelligence and security issues at the University of Salford. His research looks at intelligence, security and policymaking in Britain.