Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing story started when he arrived in Hong Kong at the 20th of May 2013. At that time he was still an employee working for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor employed by the NSA [1]. Thus, he still had with him four laptops that gave him access to the US government’s closely guarded secrets. Here in Hong Kong, he met with journalists from the Guardian, with whom he conducted numerous interviews in which he revealed the US government’s spying programs.
As his interviews proceeded, the journalists wrote articles which they then proceed to release to the world. Marking them as leaks of the US government’s spying programs. The first article published on June 5 was about how the US government had forced Verizon to surrender their records of Americans’ phone communications [1]. The day after Guardian released another article about the NSA program PRISM, which enabled the NSA to access all customer data that was owned by the leaders in the internet industry in the US, such as Google, Facebook, and Apple [1]. After the release of these two articles, the US government defended their program, saying that they were only there to ensure the safety of the Americans. Through this all the Guardian had kept the identity of their source, Edward Snowden, as anonymous.
The turning point was when Snowden decided to go public about his whistleblowing on June 9 [1]. This was when he told the world that he believed that the mass surveillance programs that the NSA, GHCQ (British Intelligence Agency), and other intelligence agencies were using are wrong and that privacy is an important right that should not be violated. He believed that mass surveillance is something unethical to do and decided that the world needs to know that they are being watched.
Ever since going public, Edward Snowden had continued his interviews with the Guardian. Exposing to the public the numerous ways the NSA and other intelligence agencies were doing mass surveillance and getting access to their communications data. It was even revealed that the US government was also conducting surveillance on important public figures of the world, such as Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany [2].
As the Guardian continued publishing articles about Snowden’s revelations to the world, the US government didn’t stand and watch this pass by. They responded to most of the published articles, repeatedly stating that they were conducting mass surveillance for the purpose of ensuring the safety of American citizens. As there were multiple incidents of terror attacks in the past that happened without the government being able to prevent it, they decided to put into effect surveillance programs to monitor people [1]. They branded Snowden as a traitor and fugitive for exposing their surveillance program [3]. They attempted to extradite Snowden and bring him back to the US. In their attempt to do so, they restricted Snowden’s movements, telling different countries to not allow Snowden to go anywhere except to return to the US as a fugitive [4]. However some countries would not recognize this law’s authority. They ignored it and after moving around for a couple of months, Snowden found asylum in Russia and has been staying in Russia ever since [5].
Snowden’s actions caused severe backlash from the world on NSA’s surveillance programs. A lot of people criticized their decision on doing mass surveillance, but there were also people defending it, sparking a debate all around the world. However what was apparent is how there was an immediate loss of public trust in the government. As monitoring had been done secretly in such a fashion, the people were afraid of this breach of privacy and decided to take their own steps against it [6]. For example, using encrypted browsers such as the TOR (The Onion Router) to use internet services anonymously.  His revelations also caused tensions between America and multiple countries in the world, as it made them realize that they had been spied upon [7]. It also showed to them how important being aware of mass surveillance is and that they never know which other country might be doing it.