WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA is taking steps to facilitate safer communication for individuals in Iran, China, and North Korea who wish to share information with the agency.
On Wednesday, the CIA published detailed online guidelines in Korean, Mandarin, and Farsi. These instructions aim to help potential informants reach out to U.S. intelligence officials while minimizing personal risk.
The guidelines outline several methods for contacting the CIA, including accessing its public website or utilizing the darknet, a section of the internet that requires specific tools to ensure anonymity. Two years ago, similar instructions were offered in Russian following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to a statement from the agency, “People worldwide are attempting to contact us, and we are providing them with safe instructions to do so.” The CIA noted that their initiatives have yielded positive results in Russia, and they are eager to extend these efforts to individuals living under other authoritarian regimes.
The provided tips, which are presented through text-only videos and infographics, recommend using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to bypass internet restrictions and surveillance. Additionally, they advise using devices that cannot be easily traced back to the user and suggest employing private web browsers while deleting browsing history to maintain anonymity.
The messages have been disseminated across various platforms, including Telegram, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. While many of these platforms are blocked in China, Iran, and Russia, users can still access them using a VPN.
Authoritarian governments worldwide exploit the internet for mass surveillance, disseminating propaganda and misinformation while blocking access to content they find unfavorable. Countries like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran restrict access to American platforms such as Facebook, exercising control over the information accessible to their citizens.
Although VPNs and similar tools provide a means to circumvent censorship and surveillance, these tools themselves have become targets. The CIA cautioned potential sources to choose their tools wisely, as their safety may hinge on this choice. In its instructions to Mandarin users, the agency advised, “Select a VPN provider that is not based in Russia, Iran, China, or any other nation regarded as unfriendly to the United States.”
