The Burning Question: Is NSA leaker a national hero or a traitor?
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| The Guardian. Edward Snowden: NSA leaker Eric Snowden 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA, revealed details of top-secret surveillance conducted by the United States |
Many on the Internet are petitioning for Edward Snowden to be pardoned,but others see him as a danger.
Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor?
Snowden, a 29-year-old contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA), fled to Hong Kong after divulging the agency's secrets to the public. In the wake of these revelations, including of a massive U.S. internet spying program, many are hailing Snowden as a hero and condemning him as a traitor.
A petition was created Sunday to pardon Snowden.
"Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs," the petition says. It had almost 75,000 signatures by Monday afternoon.
Reddit users turned Snowden into a meme and Twitter users as far away as China praised him, according to The Wall Street Journal.
But some say Snowden is a traitor to his country. An editorial in The New Yorker says Snowden sabotaged a program he disagreed with, a dangerous precedent for government employees and contractors to potentially follow.
The editorial also points out that by deciding to flee to Hong Kong, Snowden – and all his secrets – could end up in China, not exactly a bastion of internet freedom.
Other internet privacy activists have faced similar controversies.
Aaron Swartz committed suicide while facing criminal charges for allegedly using MIT’s computer networks to make JSTOR articles public. The attorney pursuing the charges defended her actions after the suicide.
More recently a 26-year-old man said his home was raided by the FBI because of his part in a hacking operation by the group Anonymous that revealed the Steubenville rape case. The man, Deric Lostutter, faces a longer jail sentence than the convicted Steubenville rapists.
