National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden has recently joined the social networking site Twitter and started following the NSA.
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Snowden’s first tweet was a quip giving a nod to his background as a former CIA employee and U.S. government contractor before he leaked classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013.
On Thursday, Snowden told Fusion during a Q&A that he had to make sure entering Twitter wouldn’t risk exposing himself. “Now I work for the public”, Snowden’s profile reads. His Twitter bio says “I used to work for the government”. Tyson asked Snowden. Facebook, for example, databases how long you’re on each page, what posts you click on, what pictures you’ve seen, and they store this permanently. Since these documents were brought to light, Snowden escaped and now lives in Moscow after being granted asylum by the Russian government. With over 300,000 followers, so far, Snowden dwarfs the NSA’s following which sits at a measly 76,000.
Snowden attracted an initial following of 160,000 in the first hour he was up and running and then almost doubled it in his second hour of operation. Edward Snowden chose to confirm if the world was able to “hear” him, indicating the struggle internet users have gone through to be updated about him. “Asking for a friend”, he joked. “So like @Snowden, maybe?”
It included questioning by Tyson about why Snowden was not on Twitter.
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“Meanwhile, a thousand people at Fort Meade just opened Twitter”, Snowden said in a tweet, referring to the US Army base in Maryland that is the home of the NSA.
