system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why was the world so shocked at Edward Snowden exposing the NSA and its practices?

I ask this question since the majority of the world knew on some level from previous acts and sources before Snowden, that there's a high probability of the U.S. devoting programs like the NSA to fully unrightfully spy on citizens.
gpt
In the United States, most people didn't realize (more like not pay attention or didn't care) of the scope of surveillance that was done on citizens in the United States, in the name of security.

The governments of the world realize that the United States spied on them (maybe not on the level of scope that they did) and it's nothing new.  The same is done by the Russians, Chinese and even our allies, the British, Germans or Israelis on the United States.

it was *tolerated* because there wasn't much else you could do and they were doing the same.  When Edward Snowden revealed to the media what the United States had been doing, the governments couldn't just ignore it because of the political backlash it had created.