Wikileaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning is officially on Twitter...kind of.
Since opening on Friday, Manning's Twitter account has already attracted more than 18,000 followers at the time of this writing. Manning's profile photo features a black-and-white drawing of her with long hair.
Since she is currently behind bars and does not have Internet access, however, that means Manning must call someone from Fort Leavenworth military prison to dictate her tweets. Communications firm Fitzgibbon Media is currently handling the account.
This is my new twitter account =P— Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) April 3, 2015
Fitzgibbon Media confirmed to Mashable that Manning, 27, is making daily calls to dictate the tweets. In one tweet, she compared the clunky workaround to "'90s problems." The firm will also be facilitating conversations between Manning and other Twitter users by reading tweets to her over the phone.
Tweeting from prison reqs a lot of effort and using a voice phone to dictate #90sproblems— Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) April 3, 2015
Manning, who was born Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 under the United States' Espionage Act of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. She was sentenced to 35 years in military prison. Manning began transitioning to a woman following her conviction for copying and sharing classified military field reports, as well as secret U.S. State Department cables and information on the condition of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first reported on Edward Snowden's leaked National Security Agency documents, welcomed Manning to Twitter. Greenwald has long defended Manning's decision to leak the military information.
Welcome to Twitter, one of this generation's greatest heroes, Chelsea Manning @xychlesea https://t.co/rKqAUCMC9L— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 3, 2015
The American Civil Liberties Union also welcomed her to Twitter.
Chelsea Manning is now on Twitter! Follow @xychelsea #FF— ACLU National (@ACLU) April 3, 2015
Isolation has not prevented Manning from communicating with the outside world. She has kept up regular contact in the form of op-ed pieces in the Guardian. Her most recent column, published in March, slammed U.S. lawmakers and the Central Intelligence Agency for the recent revelations in the U.S. Senate's torture report.
"Regardless of whether these techniques were ineffective and counterproductive, the techniques outlined in the Senate torture report were far outside the boundaries of what is acceptable for the U.S. intelligence community. Their supposed effectiveness is irrelevant to the fact that torture is wrong," Manning wrote.
In February, documents revealed that Manning has been granted hormone therapy in her transition to a woman while in military prison, the first time this has been granted in the history of the U.S. military.