26 Reasons Why You Need to Start Paying Attention to Edward Snowden

In June of 2013, Edward Snowden was the most wanted man in the world as the U.S. government and others frantically attempted to arrest him for leaking documents that exposed the breadth of surveillance imposed upon the public. The Portuguese government even forced a plane carrying Bolivia’s president to be grounded because of rumors that Snowden might be on board.

Snowden has since been living in exile in Russia as U.S. government officials have relentlessly tried to bring him home to prosecute him over alleged violations of the Espionage Act. Former CIA director-turned-secretary of state Mike Pompeo and others have shamed him, calling him a traitor. Pompeo has even called for his execution.

But as the political climate in the U.S. continues to devolve, especially in light of President Trump’s decision to appoint CIA director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and replace Pompeo with a known proponent of torture, Snowden has been on a Twitter rampage. And he’s not just discussing the CIA and torture.

Here’s a collection of tweets from the past week that show not only how committed Snowden is to actually making a difference but also the dire need for more people to speak out:

On CIA abuses and the political appointments Trump has made:

He also challenged the popular talking point that torture saves lives:

On Tuesday, he highlighted ties between Cambridge Analytica and the federal government:

Over the past week, he also roundly indicted social media companies for their anti-privacy practices, criticizing the apparent notion that Facebook has been a victim:

Also on the subject of violative policies, he shared news from his own leaked documents that the NSA was monitoring Bitcoin users back in 2013:

He also called out former intelligence chief James Clapper for evading charges for lying under oath when he claimed the government was not collecting data on citizens:

In a particularly impressive move, Snowden vowed to keep criticizing the Russian government despite fears from some that it is dangerous to do so:

Snowden touched on police corruption, waxing sarcastic:

He has also been promoting solutions that include open source technology, digital security, and his Freedom of the Press Foundation:

Other retweets have focused on promoting whistleblowers, and reminding the public that President Obama helped contribute to the use of torture:

He also shared a recent interview where he was asked about releasing unpublished documents from his cache. “There is still work to be done, for sure, and I hope that the archive will continue to be useful to journalists,” he said in the article, though he acknowledged “there are parts of the archive that were never intended for publication” and may not serve the public interest.

As he continues to highlight and expose injustice around the world, his pinned tweet from last year is perhaps the most telling: