I would not think you'd need me to spell it out for you, but I'd wager it is because it illustrates the penetration of a major technology issue into popular culture. An issue who's presence (or lack of) in mainstream mindshare has significant ramifications for many many tech services (cloud, encrypted comms, email, etc).

We've already seen multiple tech services announce shutdown as a direct result of Snowden's revelations of NSA's behavior, and solutions to these problems can't be framed without factoring in public support/lack-of.

If you head over to the hackerNews FAQ (I'm sure you can track it down) you'll see that this is eminently on topic.

So yeah. It's an on-topic current event illustrating the traction technology policy that is affecting the entire globe is gaining in popular culture.

Can't imagine why a hacker would be interested in that....

Upvotes by 86 people in an hour suggests that people think it's of interest.