▲MI5 Social Account@mi5official homepage screenshot
On April 22, MI5, a well-known British intelligence agency, released the first message on Inatagram (a Facebook software).
@mi5official is its first social network platform account. This marks that this 112-year-old old intelligence agency has finally entered the era of network information.
“Let you take a look at the door”
The first online post published by MI5 was an empty picture: white walls, blue “pod”-shaped entrances, electronic access control systems and mysterious rolling gates.
After the entrance, office windows are faintly visible. This is the entrance to the office area of MI5, and no “outsiders” have seen its true colors before.
Entering the social platform is an important part of McCallum’s so-called “10-year blueprint”, which is known as “the youngest person in charge of MI5.”
McCallum is 46 years old and took office last year.
McCallum published an article in the British “Daily Telegraph” on April 21, saying, “We must get rid of the stereotype that people in MI5 always work behind closed doors and drink martinis in small circles.”
In McCallum’s view, in order to deal with the “special professional work” of today’s era, MI5 must learn to cooperate with the public, academia and private enterprises. Therefore, “more openness is the key” and MI5 “must become a Open and closely connected organization”.
McCallum admits that the stereotyped and outdated image of MI5 is not conducive to attracting young people to join, so he not only deliberately chose Instagram, which has a lower average age, but also published an exclusive signed article in the “Daily Telegraph” to target youth audiences. The main media.
According to McCallum, the “Pods Post” is only the first step in MI5’s “open image offensive.”
In the future, with the help of this online social platform account, netizens will have the opportunity to participate in an online Q&A session with in-service intelligence officials. The latter will share some “information related to the profession, such as how to instruct a group of’noobs’, how to monitor suspicious persons, etc.”.
He also promised that in the future, some archive materials hidden in the underground museum of MI6 will be published on the platform.
▲The picture comes from the film and television series “Military Intelligence Division Five: The Controversy of Interests”
What’s the point?
MI5 was established in 1909 and is nominally affiliated with the British Ministry of the Interior. Its headquarters is located in the Thames Building, a historic building under Grade II protection near the South Bank of Central London.
This is also the British intelligence agency closest to the Houses of Parliament, only a few hundred meters away.
The MI5 and MI6 (MI6), which were established in the same year and are nominally affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior, and the weirdly named “British Government Communications Headquarters” (GCHQ) are also known as the three major military intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom.
The three major military intelligence agencies have their respective focuses.
The main task of MI6 is to “go out”, that is, to send spies abroad to engage in various secret activities with the purpose of collecting intelligence on opponents.
The main mission of MI5 is to “prevent entry”, that is, to take various measures to prevent and combat opponents’ espionage and infiltration, and to protect British national security from espionage and terrorism.ofdamagewithThreats and so on.Its opponents are not only overseas, but also domestic.
The mission of the “British Government Communications Headquarters” is to monitor, intercept and decipher various foreign electronic information and intelligence.
To put it simply, MI6 is a “special agent”, and its most famous “public relations image” is the famous “007” – although many experts complain that “007 is a complete distortion of MI6’s image.”
MI5 is a “spy catcher.” In 1987, a best-selling book written by the former senior agent Wright was called “The Spy Hunter.”
The “British Government Communications Headquarters” is “listening to the sidelines” and specializes in spying on the privacy of others.
Compared with the other two counterparts, MI5, which is responsible for domestic counterintelligence, has been dwarfed by the British public.
This is not only because of the lack of “007”, but also because of their long-standing “small circle martini club” stereotype and somewhat excessive secrecy measures.
The book “The Spy Catcher” was almost “hunted and killed” because it disclosed some “inside information” and turned into a banned book-but these contents are actually mediocre and have long been decrypted.
It was not until 1993 that ordinary British people knew the name of the head of MI5 (Mrs. Stella Linmington) for the first time.
To this day, only the director of MI5 officials has publicly participated in the public servants’ oath ceremony.
Originally, the other two colleagues in the United Kingdom were also doing similar things, and MI5 has not yet felt the pressure.
But in 2018, the “British Government Communications Headquarters,” known as the “most mysterious military intelligence organization” and always hiding behind the scenes, opened an Intagram account; in 2020, the head of MI6, Moore, opened a Twitter account. Internet celebrities”.
In order to make up for the image of public relations, MI5 has also made some efforts before this.
In 2017, McCallum’s predecessor, Sir Parker, became the first head of MI5 to be interviewed on TV. The following year he released the first live TV speech of the head of MI5 in Berlin.
But these are obviously far from enough.
As McCallum said, the British public will still be accustomed to believing that the “spy catchers” of MI5 are “male, white, non-Cambridge or Oxford-born”, and they look like “model 007”. “In fact, people of color account for 8.6% of the 5,000 employees in the five offices. It is only 3.1% of the British Government Communications Headquarters and only 7.7% of MI6. In fact, I am a Scottish person. I thought of doing this, and never expected to take the lead.”
As many analysts have said, the real intention of MI5 is to use online social platforms to expand their ears and eyes of “special agents”, thereby improving the efficiency of their “professional work.”
▲”Movie 007: Ghost Party” stills.
“Just let you take a look at the door”
But don’t overestimate the “openness” of MI5. Just as someone ridiculed on the Internet and social media, MI5 “let you take a look at the door”, and it’s still far away from the door.
Compared with the fierce fighting between MI6 Moore and online platforms, McCallum’s relationship with these “new friends” is very delicate.
Of course, he also praised social networking platforms and their service providers for their “contributions during the response to the epidemic”, but it is more like a duplicity that the British are used to.
More often, he will criticize these platforms and service providers for “not doing enough to prevent false information and terrorist activities.”
It is worth mentioning that his gestures are not only representative of individuals, nor only MI5: his immediate boss, the Secretary of State for the Interior Patel, also criticized Facebook encryption less than a week ago, “let our intelligence personnel be more It’s hard to lock in cyber pedophilia”.
Relatively speaking, McCallum is still friendly to Instagram, but the two sides sometimes hold guns and sticks. Instagram has implicitly supported Facebook on the issue of “encryption” a few days ago, and criticized the behavior of British intelligence agencies without naming names.
Of course, McCallum and MI5 still have to use these platforms because they want to “see big things.”
Just a few days ago, MI5 launched a campaign called “Think Before Linking”, led by its branch, the National Infrastructure Protection Center (CPNI). The movement claimed that “in the past five years, some hostile countries have targeted more than 10,000 British citizens in cyber attacks, using professional social networking platforms to do everything possible to recruit troops and steal secrets.”
The MI5 claimed that these methods include “perfectly harmless behaviors, such as academic seminars, headhunting, etc.”.
Obviously, McCallum and MI5 intend to use high-profile appearances on social networking platforms to make their “big events” more sensual.
The question is, does this work?
Some people even pointed out that McCallum was “too young” if he wanted to improve the image of MI5 only with the help of online platform public relations. The reason why MI5 has the worst reputation among the three major military intelligence agencies in the UK is not just because of its “old image”, but more of it is related to the “nature of work.”
In “The Spy Catcher”, the victims are mostly British citizens, for the shameful activities such as “inner ghosts” and “red flag agents” during the period of the “Cold War” and the active trade union.
□Tao Duanfang (Columnist)
Editor: Chen Jing Intern: Tang Jiejing Proofreading: Wei Zhuo
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