SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Within hours, the individual credited with leaking some of the most closely-guarded secrets of the U.S. intelligence community had garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on the social media platform. (Image: @Snowden/with overlay)
'Can You Hear Me Now?' Twitter Rejoices as @Snowden Arrives
Whistleblower garners hundreds of thousands of followers in matter of hours
Sep 29, 2015
| Tweets by @Snowden |
And with that, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden entered the social media fray of Twitter on Tuesday morning under the username @snowden.
Within hours, the individual credited with leaking some of the most closely-guarded secrets of the U.S. intelligence community had garnered hundreds of thousands of followers--nearly 300,000 and quickly rising as of this writing.
Proving that he might have the requisite sense of humor for an engaging Twitter presence, Snowden himself--at least so far--has chosen only one account to follow: his former employer, the NSA (@NSAGov).
Writing at The Intercept, journalist Dan Froomkin offered a laudatory welcome by saying that by joining the prominent social media platform--and by using his own voice to manage the account--Snowden will establish himself "even more firmly as a major figure in the public discourse about surveillance and privacy that he jump-started in June 2013."
Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists most closely associated with Snowden and the leaks he provided, also chimed in by saying that in addition to the inspiration stirred by his initial decision to blow the whistle on the NSA's mass surveillance, Snowden's voice and his "ability to participate in the debate he started - rather than sitting incommunicado in a US cage for decades - has been crucial."
Last week, with a push from civil liberties and online privacy advocates, a new effort--nicknamed the 'Snowden Treaty'--was launched to forge an international agreement that would "curtail mass surveillance and protect the rights of whistleblowers."
Meanwhile, back on Twitter:
And so it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
| Tweets by @Snowden |
And with that, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden entered the social media fray of Twitter on Tuesday morning under the username @snowden.
Within hours, the individual credited with leaking some of the most closely-guarded secrets of the U.S. intelligence community had garnered hundreds of thousands of followers--nearly 300,000 and quickly rising as of this writing.
Proving that he might have the requisite sense of humor for an engaging Twitter presence, Snowden himself--at least so far--has chosen only one account to follow: his former employer, the NSA (@NSAGov).
Writing at The Intercept, journalist Dan Froomkin offered a laudatory welcome by saying that by joining the prominent social media platform--and by using his own voice to manage the account--Snowden will establish himself "even more firmly as a major figure in the public discourse about surveillance and privacy that he jump-started in June 2013."
Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists most closely associated with Snowden and the leaks he provided, also chimed in by saying that in addition to the inspiration stirred by his initial decision to blow the whistle on the NSA's mass surveillance, Snowden's voice and his "ability to participate in the debate he started - rather than sitting incommunicado in a US cage for decades - has been crucial."
Last week, with a push from civil liberties and online privacy advocates, a new effort--nicknamed the 'Snowden Treaty'--was launched to forge an international agreement that would "curtail mass surveillance and protect the rights of whistleblowers."
Meanwhile, back on Twitter:
| Tweets by @Snowden |
And with that, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden entered the social media fray of Twitter on Tuesday morning under the username @snowden.
Within hours, the individual credited with leaking some of the most closely-guarded secrets of the U.S. intelligence community had garnered hundreds of thousands of followers--nearly 300,000 and quickly rising as of this writing.
Proving that he might have the requisite sense of humor for an engaging Twitter presence, Snowden himself--at least so far--has chosen only one account to follow: his former employer, the NSA (@NSAGov).
Writing at The Intercept, journalist Dan Froomkin offered a laudatory welcome by saying that by joining the prominent social media platform--and by using his own voice to manage the account--Snowden will establish himself "even more firmly as a major figure in the public discourse about surveillance and privacy that he jump-started in June 2013."
Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists most closely associated with Snowden and the leaks he provided, also chimed in by saying that in addition to the inspiration stirred by his initial decision to blow the whistle on the NSA's mass surveillance, Snowden's voice and his "ability to participate in the debate he started - rather than sitting incommunicado in a US cage for decades - has been crucial."
Last week, with a push from civil liberties and online privacy advocates, a new effort--nicknamed the 'Snowden Treaty'--was launched to forge an international agreement that would "curtail mass surveillance and protect the rights of whistleblowers."
Meanwhile, back on Twitter:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.