Edward Snowden says the only thing he regrets about
his revelations regarding NSA surveillance is that he didn’t do it
sooner. The former NSA analyst took part in a question-and-answer
session on Reddit along with filmmaker Laura Poitras and and journalist Glenn Greenwald Monday.
The trio appeared on the site to celebrate the Academy Award that “Citizenfour,”
a documentary that depicts some of the earliest interviews between
journalists and Snowden, received. The NSA leaker was temporarily banned
from the popular submission site during the
community Q&A, also
known as an “ask me anything” or AMA.
"Hey guys, sorry -- the reddit mods are being a little
weird. My account is /u/SuddenlySnowden," Snowden said. "Mods: Can you
pull back the ban? I can't post from the primary account. Thanks."
Snowden’s account was restored nine minutes later, but not
before a Reddit moderator confronted him for complaining about the ban.
The Reddit volunteer then got into a spat with Greenwald, later
inferring the journalist was intellectually disabled.
“We're not being 'a little weird.' We get a lot of fake
AMAs. We get a lot of people attempting to fake AMAs where they pretend
to be you. Switching accounts in the middle of an AMA is behavior that
is odd to us,” wrote moderator orangejulius. “We see a chain of proof from this verified account validating the new account - so we'll let it go.”
Greenwald later called the response “petulant and defensive
whining.” The moderator countered that Reddit took its “credibility
seriously and we approach high profile AMAs with an abundance of
caution. This isn't 'petulant whining or an attack' on the OP. Sorry if
it came across to you as brusque. The users and the mods could probably
use some explanation and I'm sure a reasonable person like yourself can
understand.”
The argument appeared to be over, while Snowden reponded to
other questions – no, he wasn’t a Russian spy, and “lol no,” he had
never been seduced by former Russian spy and model Anna Chapman. But the
moderator appeared to hold a grudge – “Never go full Greenwald,” he
later wrote, alluding to a popular quote from the film “Tropic Thunder.”
Snowden avoided confrontation, joking around with Redditors
and claiming he was not offended by Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris’
joke about treason. "To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don't think it
was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that's not so
bad.”
Snowden said that if he could have done anything
differently, he would have come forward with revelations about the NSA’s
spying programs sooner.
“Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would
have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have
felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those
powers,” Snowden said. “Don't let it happen in your country."
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