The final batch of documents from the Snowden archive was published on May 29, 2019, according to reporting on the archive’s history. This marked the end of a six-year publishing cycle that saw multiple news organizations gradually cease releasing material.
The Guardian was the first major outlet to stop publishing Snowden documents, halting in February 2014 after initially breaking the story in June 2013. Der Spiegel followed in January 2015, while The New York Times and ProPublica ended their coverage in August 2015. The Intercept continued publishing until March 2019, when it closed its archive section. Since that final May 2019 release, no news outlet, journalist, or institution has published a single document from the Snowden archive.
Snowden initially contacted Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald in December 2012 to establish secure communication. After that effort stalled, he shifted to filmmaker Laura Poitras and investigative journalist Barton Gellman. On May 21, 2013, Snowden sent Poitras and Gellman encrypted keys to an archive called Pandora containing approximately 50,000 documents.
Warning of a “single point of failure,” Snowden urged Poitras to distribute copies. She gave one to Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation with instructions to share only with Greenwald if requested in person. Additional copies went to unidentified individuals, and at least one other person retained a copy independently.
In 2019, Greenwald stated he and Poitras “individually and independently, continue to possess full copies of the archive, as do other individuals and institutions.” By 2022, Poitras described the archive as still existing with “a vast amount of information that hasn’t been reported of enormous contemporary and historical significance.” Greenwald said in 2023 the archive contained “hundreds of thousands of documents, if not more.”
Neither Greenwald nor Poitras has published from the archive in seven years, and neither has publicly explained why publication ceased.
Key facts
- The final Snowden archive document was published May 29, 2019
- The Guardian stopped publishing Snowden material in February 2014; Der Spiegel in January 2015; The New York Times and ProPublica in August 2015
- The Intercept ceased publishing the archive in March 2019
- Multiple copies of the full archive remain in the possession of journalists and institutions
- Greenwald and Poitras stated they still hold complete copies as of 2019 and 2023 respectively
- No material from the archive has been published anywhere for over seven years