How do I donate to Edward Snowden?

June 10, 2013 7:26 PM

I would like to donate a few dollars to Edward Snowden, the guy who leaked the NSA scandal. I had the idea because the Gawker article about Deric Lostutter (helped break the Steubenville rape case) linked to a donation page for his legal defense fund. I did some googling but I am not sure which sites (if any) are legit. Help?
posted by o310362 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Best answer: Consider the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 7:50 PM on June 10, 2013 [9 favorites]

Assuming you're talking about some kind of legal defense fund, I would refrain from donating money to anyone this early in the process. Remember, no one knows where he is (I think?), and he has yet to be charged with a crime. On preview, consider the EFF - they will almost surely be involved at some point.
posted by antonymous at 7:54 PM on June 10, 2013

EFF. Support the principle, not the principal.
posted by holgate at 7:58 PM on June 10, 2013 [13 favorites]

Ars Technica:

Facebook employee Dwight Crow created a Crowdtilt crowdfunding campaign to raise $15,000 to “Reward Edward Snowden for courageously leaking NSA docs.” Crow himself ponied up $1,000 and had collected more than $7,500 from more than 160 contributors as of 3 p.m. on Monday.

posted by XMLicious at 8:40 PM on June 10, 2013

Here is the crowdtilt project XMLicious references.
posted by el io at 9:36 PM on June 10, 2013

I agree the man is a hero but he's in hiding - there's no way to donate to him. Plus, he's loaded. I agree it would be more useful to donate to EFF or another organization that is working toward upholding the principles you admire, and that helps lower-profile whistleblowers who have less funds.
posted by latkes at 9:36 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

According to CNN, this group is organizing a legal defense fund for him.

Latkes: While he may have had a very high salary at his last job, I'm not aware of his current financial situation (money in US bank accounts could be frozen already, for example). I haven't heard any evidence to suggest that he could afford to mount a full legal defense.
posted by el io at 9:45 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've seen some above-normal paranoid discussion examining the idea that contributing money directly (or offering money at the least) to Snowden could possibly be seen as giving aid to a traitor, if he's identified as such. Which could label you as a traitor.

Just something to think about if you want to give money to that Crowdtilt campaign or any other. Personally I'd go the EFF route just to be extra safe.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:08 AM on June 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

It may be soon to do this. But when and if you do, I believe doing it out in the open, over your signature, would be the way to go. I think a public petition is a good vehicle, in keeping with the spirit of what has inspired him to do what he did. He faces an immediate future filled with a lot of gloom and despair, and any show of support will be helpful.

I have no idea whether his finances are intact right now, but I'm pretty sure that he's going to run out of money a lot sooner than he runs out of legal expenses.
posted by mule98J at 3:29 PM on June 11, 2013

While the previously mentioned crowdtilt link directly answers the OP's question ...

mule98J: I think a public petition is a good vehicle, in keeping with the spirit of what has inspired him to do what he did.

There already is a public petition (at whitehouse.gov) supporting Edward Snowden and also asking for a full pardon.
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:29 PM on June 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's worth noting that the EFF has said they wouldn't defend him (can't find link offhand), not because they don't believe he needs a defense, but they would point him to a whistleblowers defense organization (that specializes in whistleblowing defenses and knows that area of the law better than the EFF's focus).

I'm pretty sure the organization the EFF was referencing was these guys. Sorry for my google fail at the moment (I *swear* I read this, but I've been reading a lot about this story recently, so digging up the right link is difficult).
posted by el io at 3:24 PM on June 12, 2013