CHELSEA MANNING HAS joined Twitter.
The Wikileaks whistleblower is currently serving a 35-year jail sentence for leaking classified military information so she won’t be physically Tweeting herself.
Instead, Manning will be dictating her tweets over the phone to communications group FitzGibbon Media.
The group will then type out Manning’s tweets and will also be reading out replies to her.
Manning’s Twitter photo is a black and white drawing of her with long hair. It’s the same drawing that appears on Chelsea Manning’s website and which appeared on the cover an Amnesty International magazine last December.
The Chelsea Manning website says that Manning herself chose the Twitter handle @xychelsea.
The account has gained almost 20,000 followers in the six hour after it started.
Manning has penned a number of op-ed pieces in the Guardian since her incarceration and former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald has already welcomed Manning to Twitter.
Manning was jailed for 35-years for leaking secrets to Wikileaks after being convicted under the name Bradley Manning.
She was granted a legal name change to Chelsea Elizabeth last year but officers at Fort Leavenworth military prison say she is treated as a male prisoner.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say