Snowden calls for help to ‘fix’ US spying
RUSSIA: American whistle blower Edward Snowden urged the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference audience to help “fix” the US government spying on its citizens.
“South by Southwest and the tech community, the people in the room in Austin, they're the folks who can fix this,” Snowden said on Monday at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin through a teleconference from Russia. “There's a political response that needs to occur, but there's also a tech response that needs to occur.”
The SXSW marked the first time the former security contractor has spoken to the American public directly since he left the United States and gave thousands of classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents to journalists.
Speaking to an audience of thousands, Snowden said he does not regret his decision to leak NSA documents.
“Would I do it again? Absolutely. Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to,” he said.
“I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And I saw the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale,” he added, to applause from the 3,000 people in the auditorium at the Austin Convention Center.
During his speech, Snowden took questions both from the audience and from Twitter. The first question he answered was from Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web 25 years ago. Berners-Lee asked Snowden what he would change about the nation's surveillance system.
“We need public oversight ... some way for trusted public figures to advocate for us. We need a watchdog that watches Congress, because if we're not informed, we can't consent to these (government) policies,” Snowden replied.
Hugh Forrest, director of SXSW Interactive, said Snowden wanted “to talk to a tech-focused audience about the importance of building the next generation of online tools that protect user privacy.”
The 10-day SXSW festival which began on Friday concludes on March 16.
- PRESS TV
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