Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who became something of a folk hero, recently joined Twitter.
His first tweet was retweeted over 100,000 times. In less than 24 hours, his account shows a total of 7 tweets and over 900,000 followers. Snowden, however, only “followed” one account: that of the National Security Agency of the United States of America.
Meanwhile, a thousand people at Fort Meade just opened Twitter.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
The former US Security Contractor became something of a celebrity after he leaked state secrets two years ago. Since then, he’s been a wanted fugitive living in Russia and apart from a few rare interviews, has been rarely seen or heard from.
Snowden was welcomed to Twitter by US Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who tweeted:
Ed @Snowden, many call you Hero, others Traitor. Whatever else you are, you’re a Geek to me. What do you say to those labels?
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 29, 2015
In a two part reply, Snowden made his position – and his purpose on social media, which he’s avoided so far- clear:
.@neiltyson Hero, traitor — I'm just a citizen with a voice. [1/2]
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015