Edward Snowden Has a Substack
What's your reaction?
Edward Snowden has a Substack. It's called Continuing Ed — with Edward Snowden.
The first post is online. Also, Snowden has added a few tweets to the original announcement on his Twitter account.1
Glenn Greenwald – who played a significant part in the Snowden story and now has a major and controversial Substack – tweeted a very positive thread in reaction to Snowden's Substack. (I imagine a post will follow soon on his newsletter.)
I have a few initial thoughts. I'd rather read your reactions than say a lot about mine.
But I did want to mention one bit of context. US President Joe Biden is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow (Wed June 16). The meeting is occurring during tensions over Ukraine's attempt to join NATO, alleged Russian hacking, and Russia's relationship to the Donald Trump administration. Will or should the timing of Snowden's Substack be interpreted as having any connection to tomorrow's meeting or the tensions?
In any event, I'm very interested in your comments. Feel free to comment on any issue, such as free speech, privacy, Snowden's revelation of NSA secrets, the potential effect of Snowden's newsletter on Substack, or even your opinions about Glenn Greenwald. 🙂
It seems that Snowden double-posted part of this thread. Is it comforting or concerning that even Snowden experiences such technical issues? 🤔
I do have to add a small caveat to my earlier commentary, an observation that undercuts my prior enthusiasm some; for a man who advocates for free speech, I find it mildly irritating that ONLY paying subscribers are allowed to comment on his posts. I get it, most folks want to be able to make money off of this platform, but this strikes me as antithetical to the whole 'free speech for all' argument
With the 'pre-commercial internet' no longer really in existence anymore, one should probably acknowledge that what Mr. Snowden seems to be attempting is an electronic version of 'Making the Best of Available Circumstances'. I recently plowed through his autobiographical novel 'Permanent Record', and wonder if this will perhaps serve as a persistently available means of conveying some of the thoughts, ideas and concepts that can be bogged down by the traditional publishing process, as happened even with that vital work.
Yes, Substack has commercial application, and some might want to cry foul over his use of such a platform. However, Substack offers a chance to engage in long-form exchanges between users, something lacking in most social media. Whether this turns into an effective modus operandi for Mr. Snowden or not merely remains to be seen.