--- title: CIA Twitter Fact-Checks 'Argo' description: The agency played a round of "reel" or "real" to mark the 35th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis canonical: https://time.com/3574831/cia-argo-tweets/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-09T19:23:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:28.176Z og:title: The CIA Twitter Set the Record Straight on 'Argo' og:description: The agency's account played a round of 'reel or 'real' og:url: https://time.com/3574831/cia-argo-tweets/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The CIA Twitter Set the Record Straight on 'Argo' twitter:description: The agency's account played a round of 'reel or 'real' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # CIA Twitter Sets Record Straight on _Argo_ > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=cefaa212-1414-4ce6-9394-ad9b1f921896&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 9, 2014 7:23 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 9, 2014 7:23 PM UTC If only the C in CIA stood for “clever.” To mark the 35th anniversary of the start of the Iran hostage crisis, the surprisingly social media-savvy Central Intelligence Agency used Twitter to point out how the Oscar-winning film [_Argo_ took creative license with history](https://storify.com/dantedorazio/cia-tweets-argo-facts). “Today we tell you what’s ‘reel’ vs. ‘real,'” the CIA tweeted Friday before going on a fact-checking spree about what actually happened and what was invented for storytelling’s sake. The differences mostly come down to simplified details (they didn’t go to the Canadian ambassador’s house right away, multiple CIA agents went to Iran) and heightened drama (everything at the airport happened pretty smoothly, actually). Despite the history lesson, the hashtag-friendly CIA still has lots of love for the film (and isn’t immune to typos): “Real #ARGO: An exciting movie that it kept us on the edge of our seats. Letting @BenAffleck film here? Best bad idea we’ve had. #ThanksBen!” Check out the [whole Twitter stream here](https://storify.com/dantedorazio/cia-tweets-argo-facts). > [](https://twitter.com/CIA/status/530784786009186305) > [](https://twitter.com/CIA/status/530785557928869888) > [](https://twitter.com/CIA/status/530790548320157697) > [](https://twitter.com/CIA/status/530791096519909376) > [](https://twitter.com/CIA/status/530791561945034752) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3574831/cia-argo-tweets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3574831/cia-argo-tweets/"},"headline":"CIA Twitter Sets Record Straight on Argo","datePublished":"2014-11-09T19:23:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:28.176Z","description":"The agency played a round of \"reel\" or \"real\" to mark the 35th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis","url":"https://time.com/3574831/cia-argo-tweets/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Social Media","twitter","Social Networking","Ben Affleck","CIA"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3574831/cia-argo-tweets/","name":"CIA Twitter Sets Record Straight on Argo"}}]}] ```