ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conditions of possibility of the “Snowden Paradox”: the limited policy reforms that followed the 2013 Snowden disclosures of a global surveillance program by the National Security Agency, despite the outrage sparked among civil society groups and the public. The chapter has two purposes: to describe the strategies of civil society groups and to understand why they failed to achieve profound policy reforms. The chapter draws on in-depth ethnographic interviews with journalists, activists, policy makers, former security agents, and whistleblowers involved in the Snowden disclosures. The chapter sketches out the different groups and strategies followed within each of these two civil-society fields – journalism and activism – in the United States and the United Kingdom, tracing the historical shifts that have happened in both fields.
