Pope Francis has become 2013 Time Person of the Year, but Snowden came in close

Dec 11, 2013 13:34 GMT  ·  By

Pope Francis was named Time’s Person of the Year, but whistleblower Edward Snowden has been named runner up.

The young whistleblower has had a full year, a year in which his revelations have completely changed the way the world sees the Internet and the privacy we all have when going online.

He’s been mulling over the decision to leak all these documents for a long time, hoping that things would eventually change. Unlike many other whistleblowers, Edward Snowden was only 29 when he opened Pandora’s box, knowing that he would be hunted for his deeds and that the best-case scenario had him exiled from his country and forced to live away from family and friends.

Snowden is currently living in Russia, where he’s been offered temporary asylum for a year, protection that could be expanded in August.

While the US government has accused him of espionage, and many consider him a traitor, even more believe Snowden is a hero for having the courage to do what he’s done – share with the world everything that intelligence agencies do wrong and tell everyone that the Internet is not as safe as we’d like to believe.

In the past six months, coalitions have formed, people have rallied against mass surveillance, tech giants have taken a step to urge the governments of the world to reform their surveillance practices; Internet companies have upgraded their security levels, doubling encryptions, while lawmakers of the world have taken a stance against warrantless, unlimited surveillance on the citizens they represent. The United Nations, world-renowned writers and Nobel winners have also asked for the protection of the basic human right to privacy.

Everything that has happened was triggered by the actions of Edward Snowden and the courage he showed in coming forward to reveal all the spying programs the NSA tries to justify by using the umbrella term of “terrorism,” claiming they’re all legal, but avoiding to address the moral side of the story.