The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence body for the US government. The agency provides intelligence on foreign countries and global issues to relevant stakeholders in the US.
Their intelligence updates are used to inform national security decisions.
Recently, the CIA announced they have launched a Telegram Channel. Telegram is a Russian-owned messaging platform registered as an LLC in Dubai.
As a result of their global mission, the CIA endeavours to have secure contact with individuals from across the world. Hence, the new Telegram channel is meant to help them reach individuals in more countries.
Primarily, they are targeting countries that have no access to other social media or independent media.
CIA Banks on Popularity
Evidently, the CIA is targeting Russians to reach out to the agency. Indeed, one of the inaugural videos that followed the announcement was posted in Russian.
Furthermore, Telegram has always been popular in Russia and the popularity of the platform has grown further since the invasion of Ukraine.
Indeed, Telegram is seen by many as one of the most secure peer-to-peer messaging apps.
This is not the first time the CIA has launched alternative contact channels for individuals in other parts of the world.
In 2019, the CIA created a channel on The Onion Router (TOR), to enable people to contact the Agency securely. This was yet another attempt to establish secure channels to gather intelligence.
“Our global mission demands that individuals can reach us safely and securely from anywhere. Telegram is an additional tool to communicate with people, no matter where they are,” said Tammy Kupperman Thorp, CIA’s Director of Public Affairs.
Recently, they have been reports that MaxMind, an industry leader in IP intelligence places the main Telegram servers in Russia.
However, Telegram has denied these claims on Twitter and stated they are following up with MaxMind to correct this error.