Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked classified information in 2013 uncovering global surveillance programs, opened up a Twitter account Wednesday.

Within an hour he had 150,000 followers, despite himself only following one account: the NSA (@NSAGov). At the time of this article, the account had reached 318,000 followers – increasing at a rate of thousands per minute.

Edward Snowden ✔ @Snowden Can you hear me now?

“I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public,” reads his description.

Last week, Snowden called for an international treaty on privacy rights and protection against improper surveillance.