CIA & Facebook

(CIA Seal at Original Headquarters)

Yes, the title reads "CIA and Facebook" and that is exactly what is meant. You have probably seen many articles "joking" about the idea that Facebook and the CIA work together. There are a couple of details about Facebook you might see as important. Note that every photo, post, comment, and message traffic you submit is visible in the "ether."

So, how does the CIA have anything do with Facebook? Does anybody remember the name "Sean Parker"? You know, the guy Justin Timberlake plays in The Social Network? Parker helped to develop the music file-sharing platform, Napster, nearly 15 years ago. Parker was also Facebook's first president, and he now serves on the executive board at Spotify, Facebook's leading partnered music program. Parker was recruited by the CIA at 16 after having won first place at a state-sponsored computer science fair competition. This is only one point of association.

(Facebook "Key")

In-Q-Tel (IQT) is a CIA-sponsored "not-for-profit" venture capitalist firm - this is public information. The CIA is rumored to be annually injecting tens of millions of dollars into IQT since it began in 1999, the same year Napster was released. IQT has been known to participate in "investment rounds" with Facebook, Google, and Apple among many others. Recently, there has been an increase in "reality" television shows where law enforcement at every level in the United States is sharing a "spotlight," or is the main focus of the segment. This same law enforcement is using Facebook as a tool to increase the efficiency of their "crime-fighting" jobs. If law enforcement is using Facebook and the rest of social media as "eyes on" in the public sphere, what more can you imagine the CIA and every other "3-letter organization" around the world doing with it?