Snowden: NSA ‘Set Fire’ to Internet, Techies Are ‘Firefighters’

Edward Snowden accused the NSA and its counterparts of "setting fire to the future of the Internet" during a videoconference discussion at South by Southwest in Texas on Monday, and he called on the tech community members in the audience to be "the firefighters."

Snowden spoke remotely from Russia, where he received asylum when he fled the United States last year after leaking classified government surveillance documents to journalists including Glenn Greenwald.

His 11 a.m. CT appearance at SXSW, a technology and music festival in Austin, Tex., were his most public comments since the leaks. The Texas Tribune livestreamed the Snowden event.

Snowden, who appeared in front of a greenscreen displaying the U.S. Constitution, explained that he chose popular tech confab SXSW as the platform for his talk because "the tech community ... they're the folks who can really fix things, who can enforce our rights."

Snowden characterized the NSA's surveillance program, as well as similar programs from governments around the globe, as "setting fire to the future of the Internet."

"The people in this room are all the firefighters," Snowden said, addressing the SXSW audience. "We need you to help us fix this."

"The people in this room are all the firefighters. We need you to help us fix this."

Also on the panel was Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, who agreed with Snowden on his call to action.

"We need to lock things down," Soghoian said. "We need to make services secure out of the box. It's going to require a rethink from developers."

Snowden spent most of his portion of the talk stressing a point he has made in past comments: He has a problem with unfocused mass surveillance, not targeted monitoring of specific suspects' activity.

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Snowden: NSA 'Set Fire' to Internet, Techies Are 'Firefighters'