The National Security Administration leaker who some consider a whistleblower will address a crowd of technology leaders, enthusiasts and journalists at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, speaking from exile in Russia via a video teleconference
Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor whose extensive leaks in 2013 sparked a massive and still-unfolding global debate over government surveillance, will speak via video conference at South by Southwest Interactive, the major tech festival held annually in Austin, Tex.
Snowden, who remains in Russia under temporary asylum, will be joined by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Chief Technologist, Christopher Soghoian for a conversation on March 10. According to a SXSW press release, the conversation will center “on the impact of the NSA’s spying efforts on the technology community, and the ways in which technology can help protect us from mass surveillance.” The ACLU’s Ben Wizner will moderate.
The session, “a Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden,” will be livestreamed online for free courtesy of The Texas Tribune.
I will compile a list of working stream for everyone to see tomorrow.
I almost forgot about this too, my professor put up a notice in the board about this, so I'll be watching it in class as well.
Snowden is not the only “exile” to appear virtually at SXSW this year. Glenn Greenwald is also beaming in Monday, and Julian Assange Skyped in on Saturday. In case there are any technological difficulties on Monday, Wizner says that he, Soghoian and Snowden have already taped a video chat that can be played if there are problems contacting Snowden.
“We decided it was time for him to start speaking a little bit more and reintroducing himself,” says Wizner. “This is the way exile can be mitigated. He may not be able to be here in person but his voice can be here.”
Wizner says that the documents handed over by Snowden to journalists have sparked two different debates: one about law and policy and what Congress should do, and another among the tech community about the way their security has been compromised by intelligence agencies, with the weakening of encryption standards and finding weaknesses in tech giants’ data centers to suck up information.
“The tech community, particularly people worried about security, has been radicalized by these disclosures. They now see that their threat model needs to include the NSA as an adversary if they are going to protect their systems,” says Wizner. “We were hoping that here we could have a more elevated conversation about the technology side. What does the technology community need to know? How should they respond? Is it a lost cause or not? Are there things we can do at the technological level that will not require us to wait for dysfunctional legislatures to fix the problem for us?”
“I think this is a community that will welcome this chance to have a conversation with Ed Snowden,” continues Wizner. “Ed can still do the Oprah interview one day if that’s what he wants to do. But we’re not here to talk about his personal life, or what he does every day, or what any network journalist would have to ask. We’re here to talk about the issues. It’s a call to arms.”
I look forward to this.