'Can you hear me now?' Edward Snowden joins Twitter, follows NSA

[Suzanimal]

http://i.imgur.com/qNxtp8A.png


Whistleblower Edward Snowden has joined Twitter with his first message containing a simple question: ‘Can you hear me now?’

Snowden is already being followed by over 100,000 people, with his only follow being the NSA, the agency behind the mass surveillance practices the whistleblower unmasked.

When contacted by Mashable, Twitter confirmed the account really belongs to Edward Snowden.

The @Snowden handle was already taken by another user, who agreed to give it up to the whistleblower after a request from Twitter administration, the Intercept reported.

“I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public,” Snowden wrote in his account description.

http://www.rt.com/news/316951-edward-snowden-twitter-account/

[Lucille]

LOL @ who he's following.

[timosman]

What took him so long ?

[Suzanimal]

What took him so long ?

He's been busy.

[timosman]

He's been busy.

Doing what ? Fixing his broken glasses he wears during public appearances ?

[William Tell]

Retweeted.

[Suzanimal]

Doing what ? Fixing his broken glasses he wears during public appearances ?

I dunno. Whistle blower shit. I don't care if he sits on his ass for the rest of his life, he's done more than I ever have.

[cajuncocoa]

648906798443851776

[Valli6]

How do we know it's really Snowden?

[muh_roads]

That Asian chick in the first few comments of his first post is sure a lapdog for the state.

[Suzanimal]

How do we know it's really Snowden?


Twitter confirmed the account really belongs to Edward Snowden

Twitter says it is. We'll see if Snowden confirms it or not.

[Suzanimal]

Doing what ? Fixing his broken glasses he wears during public appearances ?

Here what he's been up to.

648905528387727360

[Suzanimal]

DaFuq?

I wouldn't share those "Love Notes".:eek:



...

Within an hour of joining Twitter, Snowden had already accumulated more than 100,000 Twitter followers. Snowden, though, is only following one Twitter account: @NSAGov.

The NSA doesn't appear to be following Snowden yet — at least on Twitter. The agency is, however, encouraging its followers to send NSA-branded "love notes." Seriously.

647788976032473088

https://news.yahoo.com/snowden-joins-twitter-171454920.html

[specsaregood]

DaFuq?

I wouldn't share those "Love Notes".:eek:

https://news.yahoo.com/snowden-joins-twitter-171454920.html

That crap is just plain sad and pathetic.

[bunklocoempire]

NSA/CSSVerified account
@NSAGov
The official account for the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, home to America's codemakers and codebreakers. Terms: http://1.usa.gov/1NVLm6s

Forgot "law"-makers and "law-breakers".

[libertyplz]

Snowden has over 600k followers already :D

[Occam's Banana]

648969328705073152

http://i.imgur.com/O6L81UL.gif

[Suzanimal]

HAHAHA, the responses to his tweets are great.


648969328705073152

http://i.imgur.com/O6L81UL.gif

648895670980583424


Edward Snowden's first Twitter troll: Republican candidate George Pataki

...

Within six hours of joining Twitter, Snowden had acquired over 629,000 followers on the social media website. In contrast, Pataki, who currently polls under 1% nationally as well as in early states, has 53,000 people following his Twitter account.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/29/edward-snowden-twitter-george-pataki-republican

[KEEF]

Following

[vita3]

Pass the popcorn

[Suzanimal]

I wonder if the NSA will follow him back?:)

648919037007777792

[timosman]

Snowden has over 600k followers already :D


Ed Snowden joined Twitter in a half-baked publicity stunt for the company. Despite the fact that there are 17 US government intelligence agencies and hundreds around the world as well as thousands of contractors, Snowden chooses to follow one and only one of them, the NSA. Really? It’s just press releases anyway. His tweets seem as if they are written by a publicist but the media is gah-gah over this. If you look at his followers they seem as if they were just planted by Twitter. It’s hard to believe any of these people give a crap about Snowden or even know who he is.

..

[dannno]

..

Where did you get that quote from? It's pretty dumb.

Over 1 million followers now.. ya.. I guess they are all "plants" lol...

[Lindsey]

I followed and I'm not a plant.

[timosman]

Where did you get that quote from? It's pretty dumb.

Over 1 million followers now.. ya.. I guess they are all "plants" lol...

I think there is a valid point. Why only NSA ? The quote is from noagendashow.com newsletter. They maintain Snowden is CIA and what we are seeing is the internal power struggle between CIA and NSA.

[tommyrp12]

Epic trolling going on here, listen carefully to the guest as the host drones on about her prepared talking points bashing Snowden.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=159&v=t3r51QI4Ctw

[libertyplz]

I followed and I'm not a plant.

Just what a plant would say!

Conspiracy theories can be interesting and all, but sometimes they are just truly absurd. "Oh my god, Snowden is following the NSA and only NSA, must be a conspiracy! Nevermind the fact that he is known as the NSA leaker! there must be a conspiracy behind it all!"

Also, why is it hard for them to believe that Snowden is actually behind the tweets? They do know that Snowden has taken part in Reddit AMA's right? He hasn't blocked himself off from communicating directly to people online

[Suzanimal]

648938950812274688

[Lindsey]

648938950812274688

So basically wherever there is reliable Internet people are following Edward Snowden.

[Lucille]

651459385445720064

[Lucille]

He hasn't tweeted anything about this:

Snowden Offers to Go to Prison
So far Feds promise not to torture him.
https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/06/snowden-offers-to-go-to-prison

Saw it was on drudge (https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/651181468178223105) yesterday and, man, right wingers sure hate his guts. I guess they believe the fedgov gets everything wrong but the "security" state.

[DevilsAdvocate]

He hasn't tweeted anything about this:

Snowden Offers to Go to Prison
So far Feds promise not to torture him.
https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/06/snowden-offers-to-go-to-prison

Saw it was on drudge (https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/651181468178223105) yesterday and, man, right wingers sure hate his guts. I guess they believe the fedgov gets everything wrong but the "security" state.

Is Russia really so bad that he'd take 30 years in prison just to come home? Maybe he was threatened with assassination? Maybe Russia is trying to push him out the door?

Or maybe it's just a publicity stunt, kind of like that Twitter stuff

[Mr.NoSmile]

Is Russia really so bad that he'd take 30 years in prison just to come home? Maybe he was threatened with assassination? Maybe Russia is trying to push him out the door?

Or maybe it's just a publicity stunt, kind of like that Twitter stuff

Or he means it. You know, that's always a possibility as well.

[Lucille]

I wondered if it was just to keep the issue alive in the news. From the Wired piece he linked to:


Snowden still holds out hope that he will someday be allowed to return to the US. “I told the government I’d volunteer for prison, as long as it served the right purpose,” he says. “I care more about the country than what happens to me. But we can’t allow the law to become a political weapon or agree to scare people away from standing up for their rights, no matter how good the deal. I’m not going to be part of that.”

More:


Asked to comment on Snowden’s claims, NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines would say only, “If Mr. Snowden wants to discuss his activities, that conversation should be held with the US Department of Justice. He needs to return to the United States to face the charges against him.”

Snowden speculates that the government fears that the documents contain material that’s deeply damaging—secrets the custodians have yet to find. “I think they think there’s a smoking gun in there that would be the death of them all politically,” Snowden says. “The fact that the government’s investigation failed—that they don’t know what was taken and that they keep throwing out these ridiculous huge numbers—implies to me that somewhere in their damage assessment they must have seen something that was like, ‘Holy shit.’ And they think it’s still out there.”

Let's hope so! I still want wikileaks to get a hold of them and put them all on the internet. "A total dump (http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2014/04/call-me-irresponsible-please.html)."

It also talks about a second leaker.

(That Wired piece should probably have its own thread.)