Who Is Edward Snowden A Criminal Or Hero?

In a world full of smartphones, extensive security protocols, and rapidly advancing technologies, it is unnerving to realize that technology is how the government is storing information on its citizens. Before 2013, the world felt safe while storing public and private information about themselves in phones and computers; the infamous actions of Edward Snowden changed how the world would view technology and the American government. Since 2013, the debate has been whether Edward Snowden, the mastermind behind the largest intelligence leak in history, is a criminal or a hero. Edward Snowden should remain protected by the Whistleblower Protection Act— as well as the Constitution— because the NSA had no legal justification to spy on ordinary citizens
The act states, “Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates… to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information… shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.” Snowden undeniably released classified government information to the public, challenging national security. He leaked information about PRISM, an overseas internet monitoring program that was legal and temporary, as it expired in 2017. The relevance of PRISM discouraged countries, such as Germany, Brazil, and India, from continuing communications with the United States. Germany and Brazil— allies of the United States— began promoting their own networks and email services to prevent NSA interference. India— although not formally an ally of the United States— advised Indian government employees, especially international workers, to discontinue using Gmail and encouraged using typewriters when writing sensitive documents. Along with PRISM, Snowden released the details of justifiable international operations, including “cooperations with Scandinavian services against Russia, spying on the wife of an Osama bin Laden associate, and certain cyber operations in China.”
The Whistleblower Protection Act declared, “Congress finds that federal employees who make disclosures described in section 2302(b)(8) of title 5, United States Code, serve the public interest by assisting in the elimination of fraud, waste, abuse, and unnecessary Government expenditures; protecting employees who disclose Government illegality, waste, and corruption is a major step toward a more effective civil service; and in passing the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, Congress established the Office of Special Counsel to protect whistleblowers.” By claiming to be a whistleblower, Snowden admitted to exposing government intelligence to the public. However, his intentions were for moral purposes and supported by legal documents. For example, one operation Snowden exposed was the NSA cell phone metadata program— a system that collected information about the length of the call and to whom it was made, but not the content of the call itself— which operated without court approval. The 28th U.S. Code § 2712 states, “Upon an order of a judge of a court… shall issue a warrant for the attachment of the property belonging to the person specified in the affidavit.” The law states in order to search or seize a citizen’s personal belongings, including electronic information, the court must issue a search