Snowden on Twitter: Can You Hear Me Now?

[georgephillip]

https://twitter.com/Snowden

According to a report on DemocracyNow! this morning (9/30/2015), Snowden garnered a million followers in his first day. Perhaps the US National Security State has more to worry about than Muslims throwing shoes?

Some (possibly) slightly different numbers from BBC:

"Fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has opened an account on the social network website Twitter.

"His opening tweet was: 'Can you hear me now?'

"In his profile, Mr Snowden says he 'used to work for the government. Now I work for the public'. He quickly gathered thousands of followers.

"So far, Mr Snowden, who is wanted in the US for leaking secrets, only follows one other Twitter user - the US National Security Agency (NSA).

"He is believed to be living in Moscow where he is sheltering from US prosecutors.

"In his second tweet - 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.'

"And in another tweet he said: 'Hero, traitor - I'm just a citizen with a voice.'

"The @Snowden account was verified by Twitter and within nine hours of joining, Mr Snowden had accumulated more than 710,000 followers.

"In June, former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner became the fastest person on Twitter to reach one million followers - in just over four hours."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34395919

 

[justoffal]

https://twitter.com/Snowden

According to a report on DemocracyNow! this morning (9/30/2015), Snowden garnered a million followers in his first day. Perhaps the US National Security State has more to worry about than Muslims throwing shoes?

Some (possibly) slightly different numbers from BBC:

"Fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has opened an account on the social network website Twitter.

"His opening tweet was: 'Can you hear me now?'

"In his profile, Mr Snowden says he 'used to work for the government. Now I work for the public'. He quickly gathered thousands of followers.

"So far, Mr Snowden, who is wanted in the US for leaking secrets, only follows one other Twitter user - the US National Security Agency (NSA).

"He is believed to be living in Moscow where he is sheltering from US prosecutors.

"In his second tweet - 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.'

"And in another tweet he said: 'Hero, traitor - I'm just a citizen with a voice.'

"The @Snowden account was verified by Twitter and within nine hours of joining, Mr Snowden had accumulated more than 710,000 followers.

"In June, former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner became the fastest person on Twitter to reach one million followers - in just over four hours."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34395919

In my book the guy is a hero.

We no longer have a UNITED STATES government...it is now the TRADE FEDERATION and citizens are just in the way.

JO

 

[georgephillip]

In my book the guy is a hero.

We no longer have a UNITED STATES government...it is now the TRADE FEDERATION and citizens are just in the way.

JO

Absolutely!
I believe Snowden is just beginning to inform Americans about what their government is truly up to. I had never considered subscribing to Twitter before, but I've changed my mind.

"Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, now lives in Russia after fleeing the United States via Hong Kong in May, having revealed extensive internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence.

"Journalists who interviewed him at his secret location in Hong Kong described him as 'quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers'.

"Explaining why he decided to leave the US, he told the Guardian: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.'

"The US has charged Mr Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22837100

 

[as seen on tv]

snowden "works for the public", from a Moscow apartment paid for by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

if that doesn't make your head spin, you've lost the capacity for skepticism.

 

[georgephillip]

snowden "works for the public", from a Moscow apartment paid for by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

if that doesn't make your head spin, you've lost the capacity for skepticism.

When your only viable alternative is a US prison (or worse) I suppose Putin's apartment would have some appeal.

 

[Deleted member 21794]

snowden "works for the public", from a Moscow apartment paid for by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

if that doesn't make your head spin, you've lost the capacity for skepticism.

I am willing to give the guy some serious benefit of my slight doubts. The US government is pretty powerful. Russia isn't a bad place to hide out.

I think it's about time the people find out what government is up to. More importantly, it seems Americans are ready for it- so the *market* is ripe for the taking.

I can certainly understand your concerns with Putin. To me, he is much like Obama- a thug. It kinda makes sense to go to one thug for protection from another. Personally, I would have found some place a little more tropical, but hey to each his own.

 

[georgephillip]

I can certainly understand your concerns with Putin. To me, he is much like Obama- a thug. It kinda makes sense to go to one thug for protection from another. Personally, I would have found some place a little more tropical, but hey to each his own.

Snowden had offers of permanent asylum from Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela but there were no direct flights from Moscow to the latter three countries. Currently, he's said he hopes for asylum in Switzerland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Russia

 

[georgephillip]

"A hero to some, a traitor to others, Snowden lives in Moscow, having been granted asylum there after U.S. authorities charged him with three felonies. Two of the charges are under the Espionage Act, a draconian 1917 statute that blocks defendants from explaining why what they did was justified. Snowden has said he would come back to the U.S. if he were granted a fair trial."
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/29/edward-snowden-twitter-snowden/

 

[Deleted member 21794]

"A hero to some, a traitor to others, Snowden lives in Moscow, having been granted asylum there after U.S. authorities charged him with three felonies. Two of the charges are under the Espionage Act, a draconian 1917 statute that blocks defendants from explaining why what they did was justified. Snowden has said he would come back to the U.S. if he were granted a fair trial."
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/29/edward-snowden-twitter-snowden/

I don't see Snowden EVER getting a pass on this. No matter who takes the White House next, he'll still be on their radar and likely will be until he is DEAD. And if the opportunity arises to hasten that, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the US government took the opportunity.

Fair trial? I'm sure you snickered at that as much as I did when I read it.

 

[Lukey]

I don't see Snowden EVER getting a pass on this. No matter who takes the White House next, he'll still be on their radar and likely will be until he is DEAD. And if the opportunity arises to hasten that, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the US government took the opportunity.

Fair trial? I'm sure you snickered at that as much as I did when I read it.

Rand Paul would be his only (very slim) hope.

 

[georgephillip]

I don't see Snowden EVER getting a pass on this. No matter who takes the White House next, he'll still be on their radar and likely will be until he is DEAD. And if the opportunity arises to hasten that, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the US government took the opportunity.

Fair trial? I'm sure you snickered at that as much as I did when I read it.

Snowden would face prosecution under the Espionage Act and would not be allowed to present any evidence for why he did what he did. If his jury was not allowed to hear any testimony regarding the government's violations of the civil rights of its citizens, possibly "fair" wouldn't actually describe such a trial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917
Under the Obama administration, seven Espionage Act prosecutions have been related not to traditional espionage but to either withholding information or communicating with members of the media.

"Out of a total eleven prosecutions under the Espionage Act against government officials accused of providing classified information to the media, seven have occurred since Obama took office.[89] 'Leaks related to national security can put people at risk,' the President said at a news conference in 2013. 'They can put men and women in uniform that I've sent into the battlefield at risk. I don't think the American people would expect me, as commander in chief, not to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed.'"

 

[georgephillip]

Rand Paul would be his only (very slim) hope.

I agree with your take on the current support Snowden enjoys among his countrymen, but I can't help wondering how much of Snowden's "Truth" we are still unaware of?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Release_of_NSA_documents
"After disclosing the copied documents, Snowden promised that nothing would stop subsequent disclosures.

"In June 2013, he said, 'All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.'"

 

[georgephillip]

"Sometime between joining Twitter and sending his first tweet, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden forgot to check his notification settings. If he did, he might've noticed that by default Twitter sends email notifications for pretty much every social interaction.

"Whoopsies.

47GBs of notifications

"For context, since joining Twitter roughly 27 hours ago, @Snowden has amassed over 1.19 million followers. His first tweet alone has so far been favorited 110,000 and retweeted 120,000 times. He accepts DMs from anyone, and has yet to respond to mine. He's only used two hashtags, neither of which have ever been featured on @midnight. He only follows one Twitter account, and it's probably not yours."
http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2015/1...en-twitter-47GB-email-notifications-whoopsies

"The ongoing publication of leaked documents has revealed previously unknown details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the United States' NSA[116] in close cooperation with three of its Five Eyes partners: Australia (ASD),[117] the United Kingdom (GCHQ),[118] and Canada (CSEC).[119]

"The Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridgersaid in November 2013 that only one percent of the documents had been published.[120] Officials warned that 'the worst is yet to come'".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Revelations

 

[Deleted member 21794]

47 GB.... holy crap. Hopefully he's doling it out a little at a time. As long as he can stay out of the US government's cross hairs, he can keep it coming.

 

[georgephillip]

It's encouraging to a technology impaired individual (me) that even experts forget to check their settings.
"What happens when one of the most wanted men in the world joins Twitter and forgets to disable email notifications? 47GB of emails. As you might expect, Edward Snowden was immediately inundated with followers, replies, favorites, DMs and retweets -- all of which came with individual alerts to the NSA whistleblower's email account.

"For reference, Snowden currently sits at 1.26 million followers (and counting) and his first tweet earlier this week has been favorited 110,000 times with 120,000 retweets. Hopefully his phone was in silent mode."
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/edward-snowden-twitter-notifications/

 

[Drumcollie]

In my book the guy is a hero.

We no longer have a UNITED STATES government...it is now the TRADE FEDERATION and citizens are just in the way.

JO

The people have always been a problem for Obama....and U.S. Citizens who also follow Republican ideals were known as the enemy.

 

[georgephillip]

"Scroll through our video timeline to see all of our coverage of whistleblower Edward Snowden, and the reporting he fueled that exposed the National Security Agency’smassive surveillance state. See our archive of interviews with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras."
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/10/23/video_timeline_nsa_whistleblower_edward_snowdens

 

[Mr. Friscus]

snowden "works for the public", from a Moscow apartment paid for by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

if that doesn't make your head spin, you've lost the capacity for skepticism.

It makes sense to me... everybody benefits or has similar interests.

To Putin, "An enemy of my enemy is my friend". And yes, the U.S. federal government wants Snowden dead. I bet there are many drones actively trying to make this a reality.

 

[georgephillip]

Snowden claims US government hasn't responded to his offer to serve prison time in exchange for returning to the Homeland:
"'I’ve volunteered to go to prison with the government many times,' Snowden said. 'What I won’t do is I won’t serve as a deterrent to people trying to do the right thing in difficult situations.'

"The U.S. charged Snowden with three felonies under the Espionage Act in 2013 that carry a jail sentence of up to three decades. Snowden told Wired Magazine in 2014 that he would volunteer for prison as long as his sentence 'serves the right purpose.'..”

The big problem seems to involve those three Espionage Act felonies:
"'The Espionage Act finds anyone guilty who provides any information to the public, regardless of whether it is right or wrong,' Snowden told the BBC. 'You aren’t even allowed to explain to a jury what your motivations were for revealing this information. It is simply a question of, ‘Did you reveal information?’ If yes, you go to prison for the rest of your life.'”

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/06/sn...nded-to-his-offer-to-go-to-jail/#.rbjyhh:n0D9