Edward Snowden has opened a Twitter account and as one of his first acts followed his former employers, the National Security Agency (NSA).
Snowden’s first tweet has been re-tweeted 35,000 times at the time of writing, while his account has attracted close to 300,000 followers in just over two hours.
As his opening, Snowden asked “Can you hear me now?”, an advertising slogan from Verizon, one of America's biggest mobile phone providers.
Snowden has followed just one account - the NSA, the organisation whose information he famously leaked to journalists in 2013.
He later tweeted that “Meanwhile, a thousand people are Fort Meade just opened Twitter.” Fort Meade is the US military base which houses the NSA headquarters.
Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Meanwhile, a thousand people at Fort Meade just opened Twitter.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Snowden udnertook one of the largest leaks of classified military information in history, when in May 2013 he released a massive cache of NSA classified information to the press, which detailed a massive surveillance programme the US was operating.
He has lived in exile since the release, and currently resides in Russia. His Twitter bio says “I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public.”
