Edward Snowden joins Twitter and is only following one account - the NSA

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has joined Twitter. Snowden, who is currently in exile in Russia after helping to expose the US National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance techniques on its citizens, revealed himself on twitter by asking "Can you hear me now?".

Just 30 minutes after it was sent, the tweet had been retweeted more than 11,000 times and helped Snowden quickly gain nearly 59,000 followers.

Around half an hour of sending his first, Snowden sent his seconf ever tweet to celebrity US astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to thank him for welcoming him to the social network following his exile.

The account, which has been verified by Twitter, also has a bio reading: "I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public. Director at @FreedomofPress."

As of right now, Snowden has decided to only follow one other account on Twitter – the official account for the NSA.

According to The Intercept, the @Snowden handle was already taken by someone who had not used their account in three years, so Twitter handed the name over the whistleblower.

Snowden's lawyer, Ben Wizner of the ACLU, confirmed that Snowden himself will be controlling the account.