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What happened to the Snowden archive

728 points · 599 comments · EXHades

  1. firesteelrain · · focus · HN ↗
    People became ambivalent. Snowden fled eventually to Russia. Some people viewed him less relevant over time as the archive merely trickled out. When he fled to Russia, he looked less like a martyr and more like a national security information leaker or spy like Robert

    A lot of what sounded extraordinary in 2013 is now baked into everyday discussion like metadata and mass surveillance. He is also available less for interviews because he is in Russia.

    Basically bigger fish to fry

    1. anonym29 · · focus · HN ↗
      He didn't flee to Russia. He had booked tickets to Ecuador going through Russia. The Obama administration revoked his passport, rendering him stateless and unable to leave Russia. Please do not regurgitate propaganda.
      1. BLKNSLVR · · focus · HN ↗
        Eeesh, the propaganda must be strong in the US if you're getting downvoted for this. You're essentially summarising documented facts.
        1. anonym29 · · focus · HN ↗
          It's partially propaganda, partially a result of a number of accounts on HN which are unwaveringly sympathetic to the US FedGov no matter what moral atrocities it commits. We know the US IC conducts social influence operations in forums far more obscure than HN, like cryptographic steering committees, it wouldn't surprise me if there's plenty of that going on here, too. That said, having known people who work in the US IC, I'm not entirely sure whether inorganic influence ops are even distinguishable from them "getting high on their own supply" of propaganda.
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