On the modern internet, if a message board post seems just a little too provocative, an opinion seems suspiciously designed to start a flame war, or a user encourages absurdly specific extralegal activity, the comment section will inevitably reach a single consensus: “Nice try, CIA.”
The CIA Posting meme—often overlapping with slang terms like “glowie” or “fedposting”—is one of online culture’s most enduring genres of digital paranoia. It is a satirical trope where web users pretend (or genuinely suspect) that clandestine intelligence agencies are actively posing as everyday internet users to monitor, manipulate, or entrap people in online communities.
The Origins: From Terry Davis to “Glowies”
While jokes about government surveillance have existed since the early days of Usenet, the specific vocabulary of modern CIA posting traces back to the mid-2010s, specifically surrounding Terry A. Davis, the creator of TempleOS.
Davis, who suffered from severe schizophrenia, frequently livestreamed ranting about government agents following him, famously coining the phrase “glow-in-the-dark feds” (or “glowies”) because he claimed they “glow in the dark, you can see ’em if you’re driving.”
4chan and other fringe imageboards adopted the term “glowie” initially as edgy slang. Over time, however, the concept morphed into an overarching meme archetype:
- Fedposting: Any post that appears to be written by an undercover agent trying to incite illegal activity (
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