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Thousands of Grateful Netizens Are Sending Edward Snowden Virtual Thank You Notes

Because sending beer or flowers would be aiding and abetting a fugitive.
All photos via Fight for the Future

The digital rights group Fight for the Future just launched a campaign to encourage people to say “thank you” to Edward Snowden for exposing how the NSA has been spying on millions of people.

In the first 24 hours after the ThankSnowden.com website went up, more than 10,000 people sent their thanks, along with messages, cards, and photos of themselves, according to the group.

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Frankly, my first thought was to worry that this was another misguided reaction—the conversation should be about the surveillance program and its implications, not about Snowden, right? But it turns out that’s the whole idea behind the campaign.

“President Obama is working overtime to keep the debate off of the NSA spying programs and focus on whether or not Edward Snowden is a spy or traitor or something else," Fight for the Future co-founder Tiffiny Cheng said in a press release. "If he truly cares about representing the American people, he should turn his attention to shutting down the NSA’s illegal surveillance programs, and leave Mr. Snowden alone.”

I’m still a little fuzzy on how an outpouring of personal support for the man is helping take the spotlight off him, but I suppose the idea is to show that people are grateful to him because he inspired a public conversation about the secret surveillance.

Moreover, the organization says it's adding faces to the statistics that show Snowden has the public’s support. But does he?

The most recent poll, a Quinnipiac poll from August 1, shows 55 percent of Americans see Snowden as a hero, and 34 percent as a traitor. On the other hand, an ABC News/Washington Post poll from July 24 found 53 percent of people thought Snowden should be charged with a crime for exposing NSA secrets, and just 36 percent didn't.

Then in June, shortly after Snowden's identity was revealed, a CNN/ORC poll found 54 percent of Americans thought Snowden should be prosecuted for speaking out and 44 percent approved of what he did. But a Time magazine poll just before that showed 54 percent thought he did do the right thing and 41 percent thought he should face charges.

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The only thing that seems clear is that the US as a whole has no clue how it feels about the famous whistleblower. Still, there are thousands who are grateful for the former NSA agent’s decision to leak confidential information. A petition posted on We the People to pardon Snowden soared past its goal of 100,000 signatures. But in the likely event that a full pardon won’t come to pass, a virtual show of gratitude will have to do.

"We found that we literally couldn’t buy Snowden a beer or send him flowers without risking years in prison for ‘aiding and abetting’ a fugitive. So we turned to the Internet and called for folks to send him a simple “thank you” note, a token of appreciation from the public," said Cheng.

If you want to add your own token of appreciation, you can so so here—that is, if you're cool with being labeled by ex-NSA chief Michael Hayden as “nihilist, anarchist twentysomethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years."