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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Alan Rusbridger

Ten years ago, Edward Snowden warned us about state spying. Spare a thought for him, and worry about the future

Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, June 2013.
‘Edward Snowden, like so many whistleblowers, has paid a heavy personal price for what he considered as an act of public service.’ Snowden in Hong Kong, June 2013. Photograph: Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras/AP

Even amid the cacophony of social media, most journalism is met with a shrug or a murmur. But ​one story the Guardian published 10 years ago today exploded with the force of an earthquake.

The article revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. In case anyone doubted the veracity of the claims, we were able to publish the top secret court order handed down by the foreign intelligence surveillance court (Fisa), which granted the US government the right to hold and scrutinise the metadata of millions of phone calls by American citizens.

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