The UK’s intelligence and security agency GCHQ has has officially joined Twitter to give the public a better insight into its functioning.
The agency’s first tweet was a simple, "Hello, world," which is often the first programme used by those who are learning computer code.
It said it would use the social network to send messages about its history and talk about mission outcomes, languages, maths, cyber security, technology and innovation, job opportunities.
GCHQ communications director Andrew Pike said: "In joining social media GCHQ can use its own voice to talk directly about the important work we do in keeping Britain safe."
The agency referenced its viral Christmas card of a demonstration of the ways that it plans to engage with the public. It seeks to post some puzzles, quizzes, questions and codes.
GCHQ is the first UK intelligence agency to offer news, updates, and opinions on Twitter.
The agency has followed several other UK government organisations on the social network, as well as @007 — the official James Bond Twitter account.
The move is part of an effort to improve GCHQ’s public image after whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed the industrial scale of mass surveillance by it and the National Security Agency.
The launch of the account is reported to have come after months of discussions.
Several people on Twitter mocked the agency’s move, including from the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.
Prescott said: "After years of following us, we can now follow them!."
Last December, GCHQ released open source code on the popular code-sharing website GitHub.
The agency uploaded a project titled, "Gaffer" which is a graph database for storing different kinds of data.
Working with HMG and industry, GCHQ defends Government systems from cyber threat, provides support to the Armed Forces and strives to keep the public safe, in real life and online.
Earlier this year, a five judge tribunal of UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that the hacking operations carried out by GCHQ in the UK and abroad on computers, networks and smartphones, does not violate human rights.
