Edward Snowden's new bombshell
A tweeting "traitor" calls for soul-searching
This is a brave new world, so a “terrorist” can go on Twitter and gain over one million “followers” overnight. Edward Snowden challenged the United States’ concept of privacy, democracy, national security and patriotism when he exposed his government’s computerised “surveillance” of its citizens. But he has taken a step further. If his previous action did not mean to attack the American “hypocrisy”, his use of Twitter, one of the leading social media tools, is asking serious questions about liberty and freedom of expressions, the very thing Washington claims it has been standing for.
The fugitive former National Security Agency and CIA contractor leaked massive details about the American government’s extensive surveillance reaches. He started his @snowden Twitter account on Tuesday from exile in Russia – creating a social media storm with a “Can you hear me now?” tweet, and later tweet-mocked America with tongue-in-cheek speculation that a thousand people in and around the NSA must have just opened Twitter. In his Twitter profile, he described himself as someone who “used to work for the government” but is working now “for the public”.
Snowden is one of the modern world’s most controversial men. Washington filed espionage charges against him for the massive information leaks but supporters see him as a whistleblower exposing government excess who is being unfairly deemed a traitor and subjected to a hypocritical manhunt. He fled the United States in 2013 and is known to have been living largely in Russia.
His joining of Twitter has proven no less controversial. Republican presidential candidate George Pataki called on Twitter, an American social media com?pany, to revoke his account. Any social media platform should not be given to a traitor or terrorist, said Pataki. He called Snowden a traitor who put American lives at risks through his leaks of national security information. Snowden belongs in jail, the politician said.
American authorities may have the right to say Snowden should be put away. Politicians can twist the issue as they wish. But for true advocates of democracy, saying where Snowden belongs is not as easy. America has supported countless “traitors”, who are “freedom fighters” in its eyes. Those on the run in their homelands or in exile face similar charges in their countries: They purportedly put lives at risks; they purportedly mock national security laws; and they purportedly “abuse” the concept of the right to say and the right to know. What are the differences between them and Edward Snowden? Even if there are “differences”, how can America say for certain that what it knows about “freedom fighters” in other countries is true?
Snowden has found a new voice. How much of an impact he may create on the presidential race remains to be seen. A news analysis says it’s already clear that Twitter will provide him with an enormous political platform. If he decides to wade into the presidential campaign, that is. The issue of privacy and state surveillance has been dormant in the world’s most-watched political race, but with Snowden having such a big social media fan base, who knows?
Dealing with him now will be awkward politically and diplomatically. Obviously, Washington wants to shut him up. Doing so or attempting to do so will amplify his cause, which has already put the United States pretty much on a back foot. Having been on the rope regarding the privacy of ordinary people, America’s powers-that-be certainly don’t want to add “freedom of expression” to the Snowden debate. The pen is mightier than the sword, they say, so the pen that can reach out to millions must be causing real alarm in Washington.
