The literati vs. the CIA: New York Review of Books takes Agency to task on Twitter for its use of 'torture' techniques
- Magazines posts nine tweets in quick succession after CIA account appeared
- Tweets link back to previous articles accusing agency of using 'torture'
- Posts were made just two hours after CIA sent its first official tweet
- Intelligence agency hasn't replied to the posts, having only tweeted 3 times
- Since launching on Friday they now have almost 600,000 followers
A literary magazine launched a scathing Twitter attack on the CIA for its alleged use of 'torture' techniques just hours after the agency launched its first official account.
The organisation sent its first tweet on Friday with a humorous post saying 'We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.'
But two hours later the official Twitter account of the New York Review of Books posted a succession of nine tweets taking the agency to task on accusations that they use controversial interrogation techniques.
The New York Review of Books sent their first tweet, bottom post, just two hours after the CIA set up their official Twitter account
The first tweet, which was directed at the agency's twitter handle @CIA linked to a blog post on their website from earlier this year by David Cole, which discusses the CIA's alleged interference with a Senate torture investigation.
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What followed was then a barrage of eight posts fired off in quick succession linking to a 2007 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross,
The report was on the 'Treatment of Fourteen ‘High Value Detainees’ in CIA Custody', which came to light in 2009 in a New York Review of Books article by Mark Danner.
The magazine's account continued to send the tweets in quick succession, linking to a report about the CIA's alleged use of torture
But despite their persistence, the CIA did not reply to any of the tweets, which take aim at the agency's alleged controversial history.
The CIA launched the social media account on Friday and even though they were hesitant to reveal their identity, Twitter did it for them by verifying their account.
The infamously secretive organisation then let hundreds of thousands into the fold at an astonishing rate.
About 30 minutes after the account went live, they had 26,900 followers; that number doubled in the next 10 minutes and it continued to rise ever since.
A total of nine tweets aimed at the CIA were sent but the intelligence agency did not reply to any of them
Robert B. Silvers, the editor of the New York Review of Books, which took the CIA to task on Twitter
They are currently sitting at 582,000 followers even though they have only sent three tweets.
The social media account is just the latest attempt by the federal government to improve transparency within the nation's intelligence programmes.
Their practices came under severe scrutiny last summer when consultant Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents proving that the NSA was running a massive phone and email surveillance programme.
The CIA launched their Twitter account on Friday as part of a government-wide effort to be more transparent
The White House approved the launch of a Tumblr called IC (Intelligence Community) On The Record last August as the first step in winning back some public support.
That site, and the associated Twitter account, has been used to release documents and statements pertaining to news matters when they occur.
Most recently, the NSA used IC On The Record to release the only email they claim to have from Edward Snowden, which theoretically contradicts a claim he made in a televised interview.
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