“Can you hear me now?” was the infamous first tweet made by Edward Snowden last week, a man known for leaking thousands of classified NSA documents to the public. For many, those small, five words were as controversial as they come, offering up divisive opinions on his outrageous, or to others, brave, social stunt.
Snowden’s Twitter profile, bearing the prominent blue check mark, gained more than half a million followers in the four hours after he posted his first tweet online; people really were listening and were ready to hear more.
In his bio, Snowden (who is believed to be living in Moscow sheltering from US prosecutors) states “I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public” and described his occupation on twitter as “Director at Freedom of the Press Foundation,” which is dedicated to exposing mismanagement, corruption, and law-breaking in government. In another tweet he stated matter-of-factly: “Hero, traitor – I’m just a citizen with a voice.” – A very loud voice evidently, as many ‘citizens’ don’t gain over 700,000 followers in nine hours.
So is Snowden displaying a powerful expression of internet freedom or are these posts just a cry for attention in his exile? Snowden’s sudden use of Twitter was of particular note to fans and criticisers alike seeing as he had warned prolifically and extensively of the US government’s ability to find out any and all information on individuals private lives and online communications.
So why has this controversial and secretive man suddenly decided to take up such a communal and unrestricted (and to him) potentially dangerous platform of expression? Perhaps it’s not so remarkable following his severe criticisms of Russia’s restrictive laws crackdown on the internet, stating many times that a “right to privacy is the same as freedom of speech.”
He remarked, “I’ve been quite critical of [it] in the past and I’ll continue to be in the future, because this drive that we see in the Russian government to control more and more of the internet, to control more and more what people are seeing, even parts of personal lives, deciding what is the appropriate or inappropriate way for people to express their love for one another … [is] fundamentally wrong.” I do have to agree with him on this – no one should be able to determine or control who people love, especially in today’s society.
In another of his tweets – a reply to US astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson – Mr Snowden joked: “Now we’ve got water on Mars! Do you think they check passports at the border? Asking for a friend.” Are these just cocky and childish digs at a system Snowden already despises or is he doing something truly liberating in speaking to millions in the hope of preaching his message on privacy and freedom? Whatever the opinion it’s interesting to note that so far, Snowden only follows one other Twitter user – the US National Security Agency (NSA) – perhaps a slightly rude and obnoxious move to play considering. But from what I can gather @NSAGov were not – at least not officially – following him back.