US intelligence has its own secret Twitter!

Washington – The US’ intelligence agencies reportedly have their own private version of the microblogging site Twitter.

As Twitter is officially banned within most workplaces, for being a tricky ‘140-character platform’, Pentagon and other intelligence officials have taken to a privately run, internal microblogging service called as eChirp, which appears to be a replica of the original site.

According to The Verge, eChirp was established in 2009, the original goal of the site was to let expert analysts across different agencies weigh in on breaking news without compromising any secure information.

However, a 2011 situation about Libyan unrest in which generals realized they could get more up-to-date information from Twitter than from their own analysts led to the White House provide access to a read-only reprint version of Twitter, making eChirp only secondary.

The report said that a password-protected subdomain on the US intelligence community’s Intelink intranet is labeled ‘Chirp’, suggesting it may be the main way authorized users access the eChirp service.