Edward Snowden and Julian Assange Join Kim Dotcom To Highlight Mass Surveillance in New Zealand

Moment of Truth event in Auckland: Julian Assange and Edward Snowden joined Kim Dotcom to highlight mass surveillance in New Zealand ahead of this weekend's general election(Moment of Truth)

Kim Dotcom has played an interesting card in his Internet Party's election campaign ahead of this Saturday's New Zealand 2014 General Election, by inviting pals Edward Snowden and Julian Assange to reveal how the New Zealand government has been involved in mass surveillance.

The internet entrepreneur held the Moment of Truthevent on Monday in Auckland Town Hall, which was attended by more than 3,000 New Zealand citizens, as well as special guests Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, via heavily encrypted video link using Dotcom's new Mega secure communications suite, and millions of viewers online.

Just before the event started, online newspaper, The Intercept, released an article by Edward Snowden,accusing the New Zealand government of secretly enacting an internet surveillance law, called Speargun in 2012 and 2013.

Speargun involved covertly installing equipment that could hack into the Southern Cross cable, the country's main undersea cable link, so as to capture the bulk of communications sent between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

New Zealand prime minister John Key has been embroiled in claims by The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald in recent weeks that his government sanctioned wholesale spying of citizensby the New Zealand intelligence agency, Government Communications Security Bureau, (GCSB), according to New Zealand's 3 News.

Key has refuted the claims and said that he would be willing to declassify documents to prove that he had not sanctioned mass surveillance ahead of the election.

NSA sensor networks in New Zealand

However, during the Moment of Truth event, Snowden said that it does not matter if Key shows off declassified documents as the NSA has facilities in New Zealand so the government would have had knowledge about it.

"When I was doing this, I could see records of communications from people around the world. I was sitting at the NSA facilities in Hawaii. Let's say I wanted to see John Key's email. I'd send the request and it gets sent to these sensor networks around the world and these networks search their metadata," said Snowden.

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Edward Snowden and Julian Assange Join Kim Dotcom To Highlight Mass Surveillance in New Zealand