Humans of CIA

Submission 30,298

Overview

Humans of CIA is the name of a YouTube campaign uploaded by the United States of America's Central Intelligence Agency's official YouTube account intended to encourage applications to the organization and highlight its diversity. After one of the videos showing an employee named Mija went viral on Twitter, the campaign was criticized by all political sides for the way the campaign was attempting to use academic jargon and liberal buzzwords to appeal to minority candidates.

Background

The first "Humans of CIA"^[1] video was uploaded on January 4th, 2021 (shown below). This video focused on an employee with linguistic and analytical skills explaining the benefits of being part of the CIA. It gained 7,394 views, 248 likes, and 86 dislikes as of May 3rd, 2021.

Four more videos with the exact same "Humans of CIA" name were uploaded at later dates by the channel. The CIA released a sixth "Humans of CIA" video (shown below) on April 8th, 2021. This video received 6,234 views, 185 likes, and 350 dislikes, as of May 3rd, 2021.

Developments

The fifth "Humans of CIA" video sparked some controversy due to perceptions of it being political and left-wing in nature, and was uploaded March 25th, 2021 (shown below). This 2 minutes 26 seconds video depicted an employee named Mija emphasizing her Latina race, her immigrant parents, being a mom, cis-gendered, having generalized anxiety disorder, being intersectional, and a feminist. It has 70,445 views, 330 likes, and 2.9k dislikes as of May 3rd, 2021. The video's hashtags are #CIA, #KnowYourValue, and #WomenInIntel. The description says "I am unapologetically me. I want you to be unapologetically you, whoever you are. Whether you work at #CIA, or anywhere else in the world. Command your space. Mija, you are worth it."

The video did not gain widespread attention until a month later, when the CIA Twitter account tweeted a shortened version of the clip^[2] (shown below).

#WednesdayWisdom"I am unapologetically me. I want you to be unapologetically you, whoever you are. Whether you work at #CIA, or anywhere else in the world. Command your space. Mija, you are worth it."
— CIA (@CIA) April 28, 2021

After the video began spreading on Twitter, it was criticized from several angles. Left-wing Twitter users took issue with it for seeming to pander to identities associated with liberal beliefs, noting how Mija used words like "intersectional" and "cisgender," though the CIA is not a popular organization among the left due to its alleged role in orchestrating coups over left-wing governments in Latin America. User @zeisquirrel^[3] tweeted, "this is a video made by the CIA as part of their recruitment drive. look at the language used, and the t-shirt she's wearing: a literal raised fist. you can't make this shit up. they are coopting what was supposed to be an emancipatory language to enact mass murder and torture," gaining over 3,900 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below, left). User @MakasiMotema^[4] compared the video to a satirical comic panel where citizens of a country celebrate getting bombed by a woman (shown below, right)

Right-leaning Twitter users expressed distaste for the video for the way it appeared to be courting the left into a government agency. User @Liz_Wheeler^[5] wrote, "Watch this insane CIA recruitment video & tell me the CIA isn’t a woke swamp creature… capable & willing to weaponize their power to target their political opponents: conservatives" (shown below, left). Donald Trump Jr. posted^[6] "China and Russia love this" (shown below, right).