NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden joins Twitter, gets a grand welcome

New Delhi: Edward Snowden, America's NSA whistleblower, is on Twitter. His first tweet said "Can you hear me now?". Within 45 minutes of joining Twitter on Tuesday he got more than 1.15 lakh followers.

Expectedly, Snowden is getting a rock stars welcome on the micro blogging site. His followers number is increasing by the minute and he is adding almost 3000 followers a minute.

His account is @Snowden and his profile describes him as Director at @FreedonofPress. Snowden seems to have had help from the Twitter headquarter in acquiring the abandoned screen name, and the account is already verified. As of now he is only following a single account: @NSAgov

Snowden is exiled from the United States of America due to ongoing espionage charges against him. Branded a fugitive by the USA government and hailed as a whistleblower by his admirers, Snowden has had a higher media profile in recent months, appearing remotely on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight and Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Star Talk podcast. On Star Talk, Tyson even suggested Snowden join the service, possibly inspiring today's move says an international media report.

Snowden's entry into Twitter has been received with a great enthusiasm even in India.

Will he cross 5 million followers in less than five days? The current trends suggest that he could easily cross that figure.

Welcome Snowden!