The FBI pwns all your LULZ.
A document released under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a glossary of 2,800 slang terms, acronyms, and meme terms commonly used on Twitter. The list was uncovered by Jason Mathers of MuckRock, who submitted a request for it in January 2014. Over six months later, the document has been released by the FBI.
Even though it's labeled as "Twitter shorthand," the terms included in the document are used all over the Internet and in private text messages. The list is a whopping 83 pages long, and contains both the terms you'd expect to find, such as LOL and BRB, as well as many more obscure terms. It even includes (helpful?) data on how many times each term has been tweeted over the years.
As you can see from some of the bizarre examples below, the feds are not exactly "in touch" with today's Twitter speak.
- AMOG: alpha male of group
- BFFLTDDUP: best friends for life until death do us part
- BOGSAT: bunch of guys sitting around talking
- BOTEC: back-of-the-envelope calculation
- BTDTGTTSAWIO: been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out
- DITYID: did I tell you I'm depressed?
- E2EG: ear-to-ear grin
- GIWIST: gee, I wish I said that
- HCDAJFU: he could do a job for us
- IITYWIMWYBMAD: if I tell you what it means, will you buy me a drink?
- LLTA: lots and lots of thunderous applause
- NIFOC: naked in front of computer
- SOIDH: screenshot or it didn't happen
- SOMSW: someone over my shoulder watching
- TANSTAAFL: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
- WYLABOCTGWTR: would you like a bowl of cream to go with that remark?
- WAPCE: women are pure concentrated evil
- WYSITWIRL: what you see is totally worthless in real life
- YKWRGMG: you know what really grinds my gears?
You'd be forgiven for never having heard of any of those, but the FBI seems to think they're important enough to brief their agents on. In addition to federal security matters, the document's introduction suggests that the list should prove useful "for keeping up with your children and/or grandchildren." It also says that these terms have been known to be used not only on Twitter, but in "instant messages, Facebook and MySpace." Yes, they invoked MySpace as a current social network in an important FBI document.
Because MySpace is so hip.
