[UPDATE 2:31PM] The entire replay is now embedded above.
Edward Snowden is coming to SXSW today… kind of. The infamous whistle-blower of the NSA will be calling in for an interactive interview (Snowden will field audience questions) with the Texas Tribune, and they’ll be streaming it live for everyone to see. Predictably, some people aren’t too happy about Snowden’s appearance.
He’s been hiding out in Russia ever since he leaked tons of details about government surveillance programs to the press, so hearing his thoughts on the surveillance and privacy issues directly is a rare event. It’s also one that Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) is keen to stop SXSW from holding, and he’s posted an online letter asking them to cancel the appearance.
Pompeo wrote:
I share your passion for educating the American public on the intersection of civil liberties and technology, but I am deeply troubled to learn that you have invited Edward Snowden to address SXSW on privacy, surveillance, and online monitoring in the United States. Certainly an organization of your caliber can attract experts on these topics with knowledge superior to a man who was hired as a systems administrator and whose only apparent qualification is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin.
Whoa, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the Orwellian dystopia this morning.
SXSW, on the other hand, thinks it’s important to hear all sides and voices in the debate on online privacy and surveillance. Whether or not you agree with his actions, it’ll certainly be interesting to get a firsthand account from the man himself.
The interview, moderated by a member of the ACLU, will kick off at 12PM EDT, and you can watch it live on the Texas Tribune website. If you’re too busy working or something else lame like that, you can catch the replay later courtesy of the ACLU. Then, you can go back to your normal life of worrying that every single piece of technology you own is sending videos of all that weird stuff you do when you’re alone (yeah, you know what I’m talking about) to spies.
At least give them something interesting to look at. Maybe get some hobbies.
(via The Verge, image via The WikiLeaks Channel)
- The NSA’s advice column for employees is hilariously ironic
- Microsoft is a bit annoyed that British spies thought about spying with Kinect
- The same spies who spied on Yahoo, which is another technology no one uses
