Map of China in CIA’s first post on Instagram ‘spy recruitment’ account
- Photo also includes wig, foreign banknotes, a burn bag for getting rid of secret documents, a notebook with Arabic writing and other spy ‘souvenirs’
The Central Intelligence Agency opened its own account on Instagram on Thursday with a picture of a desk of mysteries teased by the children’s game prompt “I spy with my little eye.”
The photo tempts with intrigues and adventure: a wig suggesting disguises, maps of China and the Persian Gulf, foreign banknotes, a burn bag for getting rid of secret documents, a notebook with Arabic, and other items that could be real operation souvenirs of CIA officers.
Next to a wall is a photo with the words: “I want to travel the world.”
The Instagram posting was an expansion of the US spy agency’s effort to recruit a younger generation of officers, agents and analysts, having already been on Twitter and Facebook for years.
The agency has been openly recruiting from universities and industry, and Instagram gives it a way to reach a large, younger demographic: most of its regular users are under 30.