From his sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, with roughly a dozen police officers outside, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Saturday that everyone in the world will be just as effectively monitored soon -- at least digitally.

"The ability to surveil everyone on the planet is almost there and, arguably, will be there in the next couple of years," said Assange, speaking via Skype to a large audience at the South by Southwest Interactive festival here.

Assange rocketed to international fame, and infamy, in 2010 after Wikileaks began helping publish secret government documents online.

Ecuador granted Assange asylum in June 2012 and he fled to the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.

He calls those charges false and politically motivated, but has said he fears Sweden will transfer him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty for the work of WikiLeaks if he were charged and convicted of a crime.

On Saturday, he called life in the embassy "like a prison," adding that actual inmates "arguably" have it worse.

Saturday's talk was billed as a question-and-answer session, but because of technological glitches it ended up being mostly an hourlong speech by Assange, punctuated occasionally with questions from Twitter.

The one-sided conversation seemed to turn off some members of the 2,000 people in the audience, many of whom streamed out before Assange was finished speaking.

With little to guide him other than his own thoughts (moderator Benjamin Palmer's audio connection appeared to go down after about 15 minutes), Assange was largely left to expound upon his views that world powers like the United States and England have overstepped their bounds in terms of online surveillance.

He said the U.S. National Security Agency has become a "rogue agency" with too much power, even suggesting that President Barack Obama would be toppled politically if he attempted to disband the agency.

See the rest here:
Julian Assange: We're all being watched

Exiled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to a festival audience in Austin, Texas, via livestream from London.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Austin, Texas (CNN) -- From his sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, with roughly a dozen police officers outside, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Saturday that everyone in the world will be just as effectively monitored soon -- at least digitally.

"The ability to surveil everyone on the planet is almost there and, arguably, will be there in the next couple of years," said Assange, speaking via Skype to a large audience at the South by Southwest Interactive festival here.

Assange rocketed to international fame, and infamy, in 2010 after Wikileaks began helping publish secret government documents online.

Ecuador granted Assange asylum in June 2012 and he fled to the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.

He calls those charges false and politically motivated, but has said he fears Sweden will transfer him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty for the work of WikiLeaks if he were charged and convicted of a crime.

On Saturday, he called life in the embassy "like a prison," adding that actual inmates "arguably" have it worse.

Saturday's talk was billed as a question-and-answer session, but because of technological glitches it ended up being mostly an hourlong speech by Assange, punctuated occasionally with questions from Twitter.

The one-sided conversation seemed to turn off some members of the 2,000 people in the audience, many of whom streamed out before Assange was finished speaking.

Here is the original post:
Assange to SXSW: We're all being watched

FORTUNE -- The South by Southwest festival is known for long lines to get into parties, panels, taxis and restaurants. But rarely is there a long line to leave a room.

That's what happened this afternoon, during a keynote interview with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

For the past two years, the SXSW Interactive festival has been evolving its reputation as more than a place for big social media apps to "break out." Last year, the festival focused on nerdier tech and science themes like 3D printing and space exploration. This year, there is an emphasis on politics and privacy, with keynotes from Assange and Edward Snowden.

MORE:Will Ben Horowitz be launching his rap career at SXSW?

The controversial and outspoken anti-censorship advocate drew a crowd of approximately 5,000, packing almost every seat in auditorium. The problem? He wasn't actually there in person. (He has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012; the British government has been seeking to extradite him for a year.) Assange connected to Austin via Skype, and there were technical glitches. On first ring he didn't answer.

After a rocky logistical start, the interview began slowly, with softball questions like, "How did you start Wikileaks?" Despite that, Assange managed to offer a few choice Tweet-able sound bytes, such as:

"There has been a militarization of our civil space, an occupation of our civilian space."

"The best way to achieve justice is to expose injustice."

and

Link:
Julian Assange draws a big SXSW crowd

AP Fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has hinted that new leaks are coming from WikiLeaks.

Speaking over Skype from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says his living situation is a bit like prison - with a more lenient visitor policy.

The Australian also hinted that new leaks are coming from WikiLeaks, though he gave no specifics on what these might be.

Assange, who has been confined to the embassy since June 2012, discussed government surveillance, journalism and the situation in Ukraine on Saturday in a streaming-video interview beamed to an audience of 3,500 attendees of the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.

Assange's hour-long remote appearance was spiked with technical glitches. As the audio cut out, he sometimes asked audience members to raise their hands if they could hear him. Benjamin Palmer, the co-founder of marketing firm The Barbarian Group who interviewed Assange, at one point resorted to texting his questions.

Looking well-groomed in a white shirt, scarf and a black blazer, Assange blasted President Barack Obama's administration, saying it was not taking fellow secret leaker Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's surveillance activities seriously.

"We know what happens when the government is serious," he said.

"Someone is fired, someone is forced to resign, someone is prosecuted, an investigation (is launched), a budget is cut. None of that has happened in the last eight months since the Edward Snowden revelations."

Assange's appearance at this five-day conference - which will host Snowden in a similar remote interview on Monday - signal the growing concern in the tech community around issues of online privacy, surveillance and security, even as internet giants like Google and Facebook reap billions in advertising revenue from collecting information about their users.

"Now that the internet has merged with human society and human society has merged with the internet, the laws of the internet become the laws of society," he said, adding that through the NSA's "penetration of the internet" has led to a "military occupation" of civilian space.

See the article here:
Assange hints at more leaks

FORTUNE -- The South by Southwest festival is known for long lines to get into parties, panels, taxis and restaurants. But rarely is there a long line to leave a room.

That's what happened this afternoon, during a keynote interview with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

For the past two years, the SXSW Interactive festival has been evolving its reputation as more than a place for big social media apps to "break out." Last year, the festival focused on nerdier tech and science themes like 3D printing and space exploration. This year, there is an emphasis on politics and privacy, with keynotes from Assange and Edward Snowden.

MORE:Will Ben Horowitz be launching his rap career at SXSW?

The controversial and outspoken anti-censorship advocate drew a crowd of approximately 5,000, packing almost every seat in auditorium. The problem? He wasn't actually there in person. (He has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012; the British government has been seeking to extradite him for a year.) Assange connected to Austin via Skype, and there were technical glitches. On first ring he didn't answer.

After a rocky logistical start, the interview began slowly, with softball questions like, "How did you start Wikileaks?" Despite that, Assange managed to offer a few choice Tweet-able sound bytes, such as:

"There has been a militarization of our civil space, an occupation of our civilian space."

"The best way to achieve justice is to expose injustice."

and

Read more:
Julian Assange draws a big SXSW crowd, which quickly loses interest