Edward Snowden came in second place for TIME's Person of the Year, losing the top spot to Pope Francis, editors announced Wednesday morning.
The first revelations of the far-reaching NSA surveillance programs surfaced in a Guardian feature in June. We learned that Verizon had given the U.S. government all its customers' phone records for years. The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald also revealed that tech companies we trust with our most intimate secrets had been part of a surveillance program called PRISM.
When we started to digest the news, one question came to our minds: Who's leaking these incendiary documents to the press?
At first, we thought this would be our generation's Deep Throat , and the source would remain hidden for decades. We were wrong.
Snowden stepped forward as the source, just four days after the publication of the first leaks.
"I know the government will demonize me," Snowden said. "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions [...] but I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."
And that was just the beginning. Six months and hundreds of top-secret documents later, new details continue to emerge as new stories are published in media outlets around the world almost weekly.
Never before had the NSA been subject to so much media coverage. After all, this is a top-secret operation that was once defined as the "No Such Agency." But now insiders call it "Not Secret Anymore," according to James Bamford, author of several books about the agency.
Without Snowden, the NSA — and let's not forget its sister surveillance agency, the British GCHQ — wouldn't be under such scrutiny from the public, legislators and world leaders. Even other notable whistleblowers have praised Snowden and underlined his historical importance.
"In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material," wrote Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, exposing the lies of the U.S. government regarding the Vietnam War. "Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an 'executive coup' against the U.S. constitution."
Courageous whistleblower or a dastardly traitor, Snowden deserved to be at the top of the list for TIME's Person of the Year. His decision to steal documents while working as an NSA contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton was the story of the year, and it will have lasting effects, regardless of legislative reform or lack thereof.
These surveillance programs, far-reaching has they are, deserved to be discussed, dissected and evaluated by citizens and their representatives. Snowden made that possible.
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