Snowden Regrets Not Leaking Sooner

On Monday, whistleblower Edward Snowden held an AMA (As Me Anything) on reddit, during which he revealed that he wished he’d leaked details of the NSA’s spying programs sooner. When asked what his regrets regarding the last few years spent in exile in Russia were, Snowden replied:

“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. This is something we see in almost every sector of government, not just in the national security space, but it’s very important:

Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back.”

Snowden was celebrating the Oscar win of the documentary about him, Citizenfour, and held the AMA in conjunction with its director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Source: Gigaom