Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who has been living a fugitive's exile in Russia for the past two years after revealing the shocking extent of mass surveillance the US government had been engaged in for years, has joined Twitter.

This is his first tweet:

Can you hear me now? — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015

His account is already adorned with the coveted blue checkmark indicating Twitter has verified this is the real Edward Snowden.

In the past, Snowden had spoken warily of social media, particularly Facebook, which he described as "hostile to privacy." It would be interesting to hear him explain what safeguards Twitter has to prevent the data mining employed by other social networks, but he apparently feels secure enough using Twitter to reach the masses in 140 characters or less that his first (and so far only) follow is the account of his former employer, the NSA.