He made his name by showing us all that the NSA can and very well might be listening in on our conversations, and now Edward Snowden is having a bit of fun turning the tables.
Snowden's just-launched Twitter account follows exactly one other user: @NSAGov.
And his first tweet shows that no one's above making a classic Verizon tagline callback:
Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015Snowden's follower count has exploded in the brief time since he joined. Within 30 minutes, he was up to 77,000 followers, already eclipsing the NSA's own Twitter following of 75,700. As I publish this, he's at 134,000 followers and climbing fast.
The Twitter debut follows a year of occasional media appearances by Snowden, who's currently living in Russia on a three-year residency permit as he attempts to avoid facing charges of violating the U.S. Espionage Act for leaking secret documents.
Snowden gave an interview in April on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight and more recently chatted with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in a two-episode edition of the science educator's Star Talk podcast.
In fact, Snowden's second tweet went to Tyson himself:
.@neiltyson Thanks for the welcome. And now we've got water on Mars! Do you think they check passports at the border? Asking for a friend.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015