‘We’re following you’: Sweden's security service trolls citizens with sarcastic first tweet
The Swedish Security Service has created an online buzz on social media networks with its sarcastic first tweet. The Säpo agency recommended Swedes to follow its Twitter account, as it is already “following” the nation’s citizens.
"We're on Twitter now, for safety's sake. Follow us, because we're following you," read a trolling first tweet by Swedish Security Service (Säpo in Swedish), the country’s intelligence agency.
För säkerhets skull finns vi nu på Twitter. Följ oss, för vi följer er.
— Säkerhetspolisen (@SAPOsverige) January 2, 2015
The post earned the agency over 4,500 retweets in just one day and over 23,000 people are already following the Security Service.
According to Säpo’s spokesperson, Sirpa Franzén, the idea for the agency’s first humorous tweet came from an internal competition.
"We've been working for the last 10 years on being more transparent. This is a part of that work," she told the Aftonbladet newspaper, the Local reported.
Fantastic 1st tweet from @Sweden's security police! RT @SAPOsverige: För säkerhets skull finns vi nu på Twitter. Följ oss, för vi följer er.
— E. Dacey-Fondelius (@Fondacey) January 3, 2015
Franzén added that the tweet was composed “with tongue in cheek."
The account was also created not only to troll the Swedish, but also to explain what the country’s Security Service was doing and how its operations are carried out.
The account was also created not only to troll the Swedish, but also to explain what the country’s Security Service was doing and how its operations are carried out.
Hilarious tweet by Swedish security service (Säpo) "Follow us, because we follow you" @SAPOsverige#sweden
— Anders Nordberg (@whymacro) January 2, 2015
The agency's Twitter account was also created to debunk some myths about the service.
“For example, the myth that we are following people for their opinions. We are interested in crime and not the view itself. It is an example of a common misconception about us,” Franzén said.
READ MORE:CIA joins social media, is immediately trolled
Sweden’s security service is not the first to troll its country’s citizens. In June 2013 the CIA joined social media with quite a sarcastic first tweet: “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.”
There were already 40,000 followers after just a single hour online, with the CIA’s debut on Facebook sparking a similar conversation on that platform.
The CIA admitted as far back as 2011 that its agents and employees regularly scanned social media to spy on intelligence targets. It already had multiple accounts on Flickr and YouTube, but only debuted on Twitter because it had spent months lobbying Twitter to stop someone else who was already using the @CIA handle.
