Whistleblower hero Edward Snowden beams in at TED

March 20, 2014

 Edward Snowden’s 2014 TED talks: Here’s how we take back the Internet

Appearing by telepresence robot, Edward Snowden speaks at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives — and the laws that protect it. “Your rights matter,” he says, “because you never know when you’re going to need them.” Chris Anderson interviews, with special guest World Wide Web inventor, Tim Berners-Lee.

Snowden on governments’ use of terrorism as a means of manipulating public consent: “The bottom line is that terrorism has always been what we in the intelligence world would call a cover word for action. Terrorism is something that provokes an emotional response that allows people to rationalize authorizing power and programs that they wouldn’t give otherwise.”

Father of the Web Meets a Robot Edward Snowden, Calls Him a Hero

Marcus Wohlsen
Wired
March 18, 2014

Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance at TED today, telling the mostly supportive crowd to expect more revelations from his vast cache of secret National Security Agency documents.

TED curator Chris Anderson interviews Edward Snowden on stage

The NSA whistleblower took to the stage during the conference’s second day via a video chatbot he controlled from what TED organizer Chris Anderson called an “undisclosed location.” Snowden said there are still revelations to be made and stories to be told about the intelligence agency. “I don’t think there’s any question that some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come,” Snowden said, just one week after appearing at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

Rather than the traditional 18-minute TED talk, in which a single speaker addresses the audience, Anderson essentially interviewed Snowden. Through a strikingly clear connection, the bot-ified Snowden was poised and good-humored as he called on tech companies to make SSL encryption the default for browsing the web.

“To people who have seen and enjoyed the free and open internet, it’s up to us to preserve that liberty for the next generation to enjoy,” he said.

Anderson suggested that Snowden’s sentiments parallel those of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, who has recently used the 25th anniversary of the world wide web to call for an “internet bill of rights.” But because this was TED, Anderson didn’t have to speculate on the similarities between the goals of Snowden and Berners-Lee. He simply brought Berners-Lee on stage to find out.

Asked by Anderson whether he thought Snowden was a traitor or a hero, Berners-Lee went with “hero, if you have to make the choice between the two.” Snowden said internet rights were not just about principles but about technology. “I believe a magna carta for the internet is exactly what we need,” Snowden said. “We need to encode our values not just in writing but in the structure of the internet.”

Berners-Lee told Snowden that his hope on the web’s 25th anniversary was to get everyday users who don’t normally consider the internet in terms of rights to consider the web they really want. He asked Snowden how he thought the web would best work. “When we think about it in terms of how far we can go, I think that’s a question that’s limited only by what we’re willing to do,” Snowden said. “I think the internet that we’ve enjoyed in the past has been exactly what we, not just as a nation but as a people around the world, need.” If the web’s technologists can truly enlist the web’s casual users as allies, he said, “we’ll get not just the internet we’ve had, but a better internet.”

At the end of Snowden’s appearance, Anderson stuck a TED conference badge on Snownden’s bot and invited him to stick around for the week. With that, he rolled offstage, accompanied by his lawyer.

http://www.wired.com/business/2014/03/ed-snowden-meets-father-web-stage-ted/

Edward Snowden speaks to TED conference through a robot (video)

Stephen Hui
Georgia Straight
March 18, 2014

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden today (March 18) addressed Vancouver’s TED conference.
Unlike other TED2014 speakers, Snowden spoke through a robot, answering questions from TED curator Chris Anderson.

Anderson told the $7,500-a-ticket crowd that Snowden was controlling the bot with his laptop from a “remote location somewhere in Russia”.

Here’s what Snowden said in response to a headline reporting that U.S. spies want him dead:
You know, it’s no mystery that there are governments out there that want to see me dead. I’ve made clear again and again and again that I go to sleep every morning thinking about what I can do for the American people. I don’t want to harm my government. I want to help my government. But the fact that they’re willing to completely ignore due process, they’re willing to declare guilt without ever seeing a trial, these are things that we need to work against as a society and say, “Hey, this is not appropriate.” We shouldn’t be threatening dissidents. We shouldn’t be criminalizing journalism. And whatever part I can do to see that end I’m happy to do despite the risks.

Anderson asked the audience if they considered Snowden’s release of classified documents in 2013 a “reckless act” or a “heroic act”. While more attendees raised their hands in support of the latter stance, a few backed the former, and many didn’t move in their seats at all.

http://www.straight.com/blogra/609171/edward-snowden-speaks-ted-conference-through-robot-video

Written by SLai Posted in Politics, Society Tagged with democratic rights and freedoms, Edward Snowden, privacy, public interest, TED, Vancouver