When we compare the Top 20 lists, a clear difference in the associations is visible. The 30-year-old American is associated with many personally charged concepts. Most often with his first name, but also with 'asylum' and with words with a positive connotation such as 'helpful', 'helping' and 'willing'. Dutch Twitter users seem to hold the whistleblower little against this sensitive issue. Snowden as a person remains out of the picture in the tens of thousands of tweets that we have monitored.
top20 associations
However, this does not apply to the American security service, the anonymous pakistan mobile phone number list invisible institution that has been monitoring our phone and online behavior for years. It is spoken about in a negative way: 'not' is the most used word in connection with NSA. It is mentioned almost twice as much as the more neutral terms 'American' and - yes, there it is again - 'Plasterk'. Other negative associations in the top 20 are 'eavesdropping', 'eavesdropped', 'listened' and 'secret'.
In conclusion, we can state that the Dutch have more sympathy for a whistleblower who took great risks, found political asylum in Russia and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize than for a powerful political service that keeps a close eye on our internet behavior. Just like companies like Google and Facebook, by the way.
It also appears that the Dutch only really start to make their mark when we ourselves are in the picture of an international scandal, with the responsible minister as the scapegoat that we can all then happily criticize. On the digital sidelines, that is. Does Edward Snowden even know who that cursed Ronald Plasterk is? He should just google it. Or would America's most wanted man no longer dare to do that at his Russian hideout?