Glenn Greenwald
Against the surveillance state
Privacy and press freedom.
Reformist Civil LibertarianOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Civil Libertarian hall →- Role
- Journalist
- Era
- b. 1967
- Region
- United States / Brazil
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- +40 · −34 · +55
§ Where Glenn Greenwald stands
3 axesGreenwald's work centres on state power rather than economics, and his placement reflects that market-agnostic focus rather than any redistributive programme. He has followed an independent, entrepreneurial path, leaving The Intercept in 2020 to publish on Substack funded directly by subscribers, though his 2011 book With Liberty and Justice for Some attacked the legal immunity enjoyed by Wall Street executives after the 2008 crash.
Opposition to surveillance and secrecy defines Greenwald's politics. How Would a Patriot Act? (2006) attacked the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping, and his 2013 reporting on Snowden's documents exposed the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, which a federal appeals court ruled unlawful in 2015 and Congress ended through the USA Freedom Act that year. As a lawyer he defended the speech rights even of extremists.
Greenwald is openly gay and was married to the Brazilian politician David Miranda, who was detained at Heathrow under anti-terrorism law in 2013 while carrying Snowden material. He has long defended the civil liberties of Muslims targeted in the war on terror, but since the late 2010s he has turned sharply against what he sees as liberal identity politics and censorship, which keeps his progressivism reformist.
How close are you to Glenn Greenwald?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingGlenn Greenwald (born 1967) is an American journalist, author and former lawyer who has lived in Rio de Janeiro since 2005. After law school at New York University he practised constitutional and civil-rights litigation, including First Amendment cases, before starting the blog Unclaimed Territory in 2005 to criticise the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance and expansive executive power. He wrote for Salon from 2007 and The Guardian from 2012, and his books include How Would a Patriot Act? (2006) and With Liberty and Justice for Some (2011).
In June 2013 Greenwald published, with Laura Poitras and Guardian colleagues, the first of Edward Snowden's leaked documents on mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency, reporting that shared in a 2014 Pulitzer Prize. He co-founded The Intercept that year, resigned in 2020 accusing its editors of censoring an article critical of Joe Biden, and later hosted System Update on Rumble. His reporting on Brazil's Car Wash investigation led prosecutors to charge him with cybercrimes in 2020, though a judge declined to proceed. His attacks on Democrats and the security establishment have made him a polarising figure.
Notable for
- 01Reported the NSA surveillance disclosures
- 02Press-freedom advocacy
- 03Privacy-rights journalism
Key works & moments
- 2005Launches the blog Unclaimed Territory, focused on Bush-era surveillance and executive power.
- 2006Publishes How Would a Patriot Act?, attacking warrantless wiretapping.
- 2013Publishes the first of Edward Snowden's NSA disclosures in The Guardian.
- 2014Co-founds The Intercept and publishes No Place to Hide; The Guardian shares a Pulitzer Prize.
- 2019The Intercept Brasil publishes leaked messages from Brazil's Car Wash corruption investigation.
- 2020Resigns from The Intercept, alleging censorship, and turns to independent publishing.
§ Minds closest to Glenn Greenwald
All minds →
§ Also in the Civil Libertarian hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Glenn Greenwald's political ideology?
Glenn Greenwald is a civil libertarian whose central cause is opposition to state surveillance, secrecy and censorship: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Civil Libertarian. Economically he sits on the market side of centre (+40), with no redistributive programme and an independent, subscriber-funded career. On governance he is clearly libertarian (−34), as his reporting on NSA mass surveillance showed, and socially he is progressive (+55), an openly gay defender of minority rights who has grown hostile to liberal identity politics.
Is Glenn Greenwald left-wing or right-wing?
He began on the left but has become hard to place. Greenwald made his name attacking the Bush administration's surveillance and war-on-terror policies and was long counted as a progressive critic of both parties. Since about 2016 he has aimed his fiercest criticism at the Democratic Party, mainstream media and intelligence agencies, rejected claims of collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, and appeared often on conservative outlets. Defenders see consistent opposition to state power and censorship; critics see a drift to the right.
What did Glenn Greenwald reveal about the NSA?
Working from Edward Snowden's leaked documents in June 2013, Greenwald reported that the National Security Agency was collecting the phone records of millions of Americans in bulk under a secret court order to Verizon, and that the PRISM programme gave it access to data held by major internet companies. The reporting, with Laura Poitras and Guardian colleagues, prompted a worldwide debate on surveillance, a 2015 appeals-court ruling against the phone-records programme and the USA Freedom Act of 2015, which ended that bulk collection.
Which minds are closest to Glenn Greenwald?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Glenn Greenwald are Clarence Darrow (98% alike), John Perry Barlow (97% alike) and Edward Snowden (97% alike). The furthest is Gregor Strasser (14% alike).