Social networking website VKontakte confirmed that it had not extended a job offer nor hired Edward Snowden to join the company. According to VKontakte founder Pavel Durov who wrote to, and eventually told tech website Techcrunch, stories about the hiring of the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower were not true.

In August, rumore were rife that Snowden had accepted a job offer at the major Russian website. The reportes were based on a spoof Twitter account of the famouse data leaker's attorney. NPR journalist James Glynn, who first reported the news, had deleted his twitter post about Snowden's supposed job hiring.

Although Durov had nice words about Snowden, he said he or the company had not offered Snowden a job at the company.

Snowden's previous employer, the NSA, had received flak lately due to its surveillance activities. According to a CNN report, NSA receives a larger chunk of the combined intelligence budget of USD75 billion in 2012. Nonpartisan think tank Federation of American Scientists director of the government secrecy program Steve Aftergood projected that 14% of the intelligence budget goes to the NSA.