Elon Musk posted a Twitter poll on Saturday on whether former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange should be pardoned. Preliminary results show overwhelming public support for letting the two, who both face charges under the Espionage Act, off the hook.
“I am not expressing an opinion, but did promise to conduct this poll,” Musk tweeted, asking users: “Should Assange and Snowden be pardoned?”
So far, with more than 1.3 million people voting, 79% say ‘yes’, 21% ‘no’.
In 2013, Snowden leaked a massive trove of classified documents revealing the US National Security Agency’s sprawling surveillance operations which targeted civilians in America. The whistleblower subsequently fled the US to Hong Kong, and then to Russia, where he recently received a Russian passport, according to his lawyer.