Someone holding a photograph of Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker at a protest Kim Cheung/AP
Secure Email Service Used by Snowden Shuts Down
The head of the company that runs the secret email service that NSA leaker Edward Snowden used says he can no longer be "complicit in crimes against the American people." By Zachary M. Seward
The secure email service said to be used by Edward Snowden has abruptly shut down.
“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” Ladar Levison, the company’s head, wrote in a letter posted on the site. “After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot.”
Lavabit uses encryption to prevent emails from being read by anyone but the sender and intended recipient. Snowden was revealed to be using it when a representative from Human Rights Watch posted a message (registration required) believed to be from Snowden along with an email address, edsnowden@lavabit.com.
It’s not clear what prompted Lavabit to shut down. It had suspended service, supposedly for technical reasons, for some 24 hours before the announcement was posted, leading to a mix of consternation and annoyance among its users on Twitter.
Read more at Quartz.