That’s right. The man whose interview about dick picks with comedian John Oliver is better remembered than his serious sit-down with ex-NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams has joined one of social media’s most troll-happy venues.
Snowden announced the new account to the world on Tuesday with his first Verizon Wireless-esque tweet:
So how did this all come about? As The Intercept points out, we have celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to thank for Snowden’s new Twitter account. The two recently participated in a long, wide-ranging interview for Tyson’s Star Talk Radio program, which released its second part on Friday. That’s when the topic of social media came up.
“You kind of need a Twitter handle. So like @Snowden, maybe? Is this something you might do?” Tyson asked.“That sounds good, I think we
’ve got to make it it happen,” Snowden replied.“You and I will be Twitter buddies,” Snowden told Tyson. “Your followers will be: the Internet, me, and the NSA.”
Sure enough, Tyson welcome @Snowden with his own Twitter account on Tuesday morning:
Snowden thanked Tyson with a quip about Mars accepting his visa now that the possibility of flowing water could mean future endeavors to travel to the red planet. Tyson agreed:
As of this writing, Snowden’s account has already amassed over 100,000 followers. Yet the account itself is only following one other — the official account for the National Security Agency and Central Security Service. In other words, the very organization Snowden leaked classified documents from.
@NSAGov isn’t following @Snowden back, at least as far as can be publicly seen.
[h/t The Intercept]
[Image via screengrab]
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