Edward Snowden, Hero or Traitor

Running Head: EDWARD SNOWDEN 1

EDWARD SNOWDEN 2

Edward Snowden, Hero or Traitor

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Introduction

Edward Snowden is a former National Security Agency (NSA) as a computer programmer subcontractor. While working with the NSA, Snowden established that the United States government used a global mass surveillance system. The system was primarily used to monitor the American citizen, foreign citizens as well as foreign governments. In most cases, intelligence agencies will use such accurate systems to ensure security for the public and protect them from incidents of terrorism and crimes. However, the global surveillance was conducted even on people who did not have terrorism links. The system included spying on people’s private mobile phone conversations and emails without a court warrant of consent (Verble, 2014). From this discovery, Snowden felt the need to expose the government's action against people's civil liberties. Therefore, in 2013, Snowden copied and eventually leaked documents containing classified information on how the NSA and the government were exploiting the digital technology to collect private information that would not have helped protect the public.

References

Edward Snowden is a hero not a traitor. Amnesty.org. (2017). Retrieved 9 February 2021, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/Edward-Snowden-hero-not-traitor/.

Nolan, C. (2017). The Edward Snowden Case and the Morality of Secrecy. Catholic Social Science Review, 22, 291-310.

Pohle, J., & Van Audenhove, L. (2017). Post-Snowden internet policy: between public outrage, resistance and policy change. Media and Communication, 5(1), 1-6.

Verble, J. (2014). The NSA and Edward Snowden: surveillance in the 21st century. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 44(3), 14-20.