NPR: What Edward Snowden On Twitter Could Mean For The Presidential Race

[portlander23]

NPR: What Edward Snowden On Twitter Could Mean For The Presidential Race

Edward Snowden sent his first-ever tweet at noon on Tuesday, asking, "Can you hear me now?"

One Republican candidate clearly did. Within the hour, former New York Gov. George Pataki had retweeted the NSA whistleblower, calling him "a traitor who put American lives at risk."

But it's already clear that Twitter will provide Snowden an enormous platform, should he decide to wade into the campaign's policy debates from Moscow. Within four hours of his first tweet, Snowden had amassed 400,000 followers.

One notable exception: an intense back-and-forth between Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the first Republican presidential debate that ended with Paul repeatedly yelling "get a warrant!" as Christie called the senator's NSA opposition "completely ridiculous."

"It seems to me that domestic surveillance has totally fallen off the radar," said Stephen Vladeck, an American University law professor who edits a national security blog called Just Security. "I find that both disappointing and surprising."

And it appears that Snowden will be bringing a sense of humor to the social media platform. So far he's only following one account: the NSA's.

[Hydra]

1. *lmao*

You go Edward- too many people have managed to shove the issue of NSA overreach under the rug.

[840high]

2. ...+1

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Good. The "Security" state should be a top issue. K&R

[riderinthestorm]

4. He has 1.15 million followers in first 24 hours.

Yup, he's going to be a part of the convo.