NSA leaker Edward Snowden joins Twitter

The account went live with Twitter’s coveted blue verified tick.

When Snowden replied that he would consider joining, Tyson quipped: ‘Your followers will be the Internet, me, and the NSA’.

The former government contractor known for leaking top secret information about the National Security Agency’s spy activities described himself on Twitter as the director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which was started in 2012.

And, in his first tweet Tuesday afternoon, Snowden channeled the Verizon catchphrase: “Can you hear me now?”

“You kind of need a Twitter handle”.

Edward Snowden spoke via video chat from an undisclosed location in Russian Federation to students gathered in Iowa City.

Snowden was recently asked by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson why he wasn’t tweeting with the masses worldwide. The country granted his asylum after he was charged with three felonies under the Espionage Act.

Twitter was contacted, and agreed to assign it to Edward Snowden. Snowden’s lawyer, Ben Wizner of the ACLU, told The Intercept that Snowden will be controlling the account.