Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

CIA's Twitter reaches early nadir with joke about Tupac's death

Agency also made quip about not knowing users' passwords

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 08 July 2014 06:44 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Since joining Twitter a month ago, the CIA has acted like any brand or government body trying to shake off a stuffy reputation would and blasted its feed with dad jokes and hashtags.

A new low was reached last night though when it announced it would answer "5 of the top questions" from Twitter users using the annoying hashtag #twitterversary.

By "top questions" they obviously meant flippant, pop culture-related ones, a serious answer about an A-12 OXCART reconnaissance aircraft sitting uncomfortably amongst ones about Ellen DeGeneres, selfies and, bizarelly, Tupac Shakur.

"No, we don’t know where Tupac is," the CIA tweeted, which some took offence to, given that the rapper is very clearly dead.

The tweet attracted over 93,000 retweets, a couple of hundred thousand short of its very first message: "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in