YHK - yet another hacker news clone

What Happened to the Snowden Archive

76 points EXHades 1 hour ago 22 comments

cocodill 1 hour ago | parent

If you leak it, leak it everywhere!

anotherhue 59 minutes ago | parent

I think the real answer is the Overton window shifted to accommodate what was previously scandalous,

ericyd 57 minutes ago | parent

I remember when mass surveillance was the worst thing the US government did to its citizens

jdiff 17 minutes ago | parent

It's really never been the worst thing. From MKUltra to Operation Sea-Spray and many, many more.

all2 5 minutes ago | parent

Those are all conspiracy theories. ;)

bflesch 43 minutes ago | parent

In 2026 these kind of articles must be a bait to receive the latest pegasus-style payload on your honeypot devices.

No matter how many internals are being leaked about five eyes, it's important to realize that there is always someone who benefits from the turmoil and the loss of faith into democratically-supervised institutions.

With technical agencies I'd guess that at least they promoted people based on technical merit and not by how much land ownership their families had 500 yrs ago.

iamnothere 35 minutes ago | parent

Be afraid, folks. Don’t read about the man behind the curtain, you’re better off knowing nothing. I’m sure everything is a-ok even without public supervision. Trust the authorities.

Forgeties79 23 minutes ago | parent

That’s a gross misrepresentation of their point.

fn-mote 3 minutes ago | parent

I read the GGP comment several times and I still have no idea what their point is.

Bait… Pegasus… honeypot? What? Decoding: is this indicating you’re ready with the honeypot to detect attempts to compromise you? Still makes little sense.

What democratically supervised institutions are being alluded to?

markdown 3 minutes ago | parent

> the loss of faith into democratically-supervised institutions.

Surely you mean oligarch-supervised institutions.

Our institutions are supervised by representatives elected on the dime of corporate and billionaire benefactors. They pull the strings.

It became a banana republic when money became speech.

AlexCoventry 40 minutes ago | parent

Imagine the abuses the Trump administration is making of US surveillance powers. The market intelligence alone must be netting him billions.

BLKNSLVR 26 minutes ago | parent

Given what he does in public, I'm not sure there's any limit to what they're all doing in private.

Buy stocks in paper-shredder companies.

pluc 39 minutes ago | parent

Eh, the outrage never really materialized into anything worth continuing the leaks. Look at the Epstein files. "They" can just wait it out.

BLKNSLVR 16 minutes ago | parent

The banality of the day after outrage.

harry8 6 minutes ago | parent

The difference is the epstein files have been massively overhyped and imagination has led sense.

Real content in the files has caused serious trouble to the moron formerly known as "Prince Andrew" and to Peter Mandelson. This content wasn't some massive pedo consipracy but more common or garden finance sleaze - providing govt. inside info that could be used for trading profits.

Seems Epstein was a more commonplace sleazy creep into young prostitutes getting him into age of consent trouble in some states but not others. This more than some cia/mossad front of blackmailing the powerful with horrific acts done to children.

But absolutely all of it should be dug through, read, understood and prosecuted on the basis of actual evidence of any and all crime. What's there seems less good for selling clickbait-y podcasts or using as an emotional cudgel in politics. Hysteria rarely works out in a positive way.

iamnothere 3 minutes ago | parent

[delayed]

Arodex 36 minutes ago | parent

Snowden saw what evil things the USA was doing (spying on everyone!), and he put his career and life on the line to fight for what was right.

And now he lives quietly in Russia.

/S

BLKNSLVR 29 minutes ago | parent

The term "responsible disclosure" may no longer have any meaning.

"Irresponsible disclosure" for the short term may be equivalent to "responsible disclosure" for the long term.

There must be some pretty dark stuff yet to be disclosed, and/or some pretty overt threats for those relatively fearless journalists to close ranks. The "Assange example" may have done its job perfectly.

iamnothere 20 minutes ago | parent

Not just Assange, basically everyone involved except maybe Poitras took a hit. Appelbaum was driven out of his work with Tor (and from public life) after a smear campaign, Greenwald had to shift to alt media, and Snowden had to flee the country. Other journalists and editors “moved on” from their work with the papers.

Snowden did ask them not to get into any direct military secrets that were in the leaks, so that could explain some of the restraint.

johnnyApplePRNG 21 minutes ago | parent

Considering Snowden was a psyop, there probably was never any Archive.

No real one, at least.

Not like we were told.

You seriously believe he's still just happily living in Russia? Today?

That's insane.

bigyabai 6 minutes ago | parent

> You seriously believe he's still just happily living in Russia? Today?

I mean, Bashar al-Assad is. If he can escape thousands of highly-motivated revenge campaigns to see him strung up like Gadaffi, I can believe in Snowden sipping tea from his dacha.