US whistleblower Edward Snowden joins twitter, follows NSA

Edward Snowden, who has confounded U.S. officials since his abrupt departure from the country two years ago, has just found a new megaphone in Twitter.

The former National Security Agency worker, who leaked classified documents about government surveillance, started tweeting Tuesday. He had more than 185,000 followers an hour after his first tweet, "Can you hear me now?" Snowden is following just one account: tweets from the National Security Agency.

Like other high-profile people on the messaging service, the account has a blue and white check mark, indicating that it was verified by Twitter.

Neither the NSA nor Twitter Inc. immediately responded to requests for comment.

Snowden is currently living in exile in Russia. He faces charges in the U.S. that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Twitter has hosted other controversial figures and groups. Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has a verified Twitter account, as does Kim Dotcom, the founder of illegal download site Megaupload.