Edward Snowden, a formed NSA contractor,  spoke to thousands of viewers at SXSW, defending his leaking of NSA data which he argues improved US. National Security by exposing  its shortcomings.

The Problem

 

'America has more to lose than anyone else'  (CNBC)

 

'They're setting fire to the future of the internet, and you in this room are the firefighters'

 

'We rely on the ability to trust our communications and without that, we don’t have anything, our economy cannot succeed.'

 

'This is something that people have to be able to interact with, and the way we interact with it now is not that good' (CNN)

 

The Solution

 

'How do we fix our oversight model? Accountability.'

 

'There's a political response that needs to occur, but there's also a tech response that needs to occur' (CNN)

 

'We need a watchdog that watches Congress'

 

'We need public oversight ... some way for trusted public figures to advocate for us. We need a watchdog that watches Congress, because if we're not informed, we can't consent to these (government) policies' (CNN)

 

'South by Southwest and the tech community, the people in the room in Austin, they're the folks who can fix this'

'Would I do it again? Absolutely.

Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to'