A Night with Edward Snowden

by Heather Hernandez & Taylor Cone

Thanks to the generosity of Alex Klein, we had the privilege of hearing Edward Snowden speak at City Arts & Lectures tonight. We feel so moved by Snowden’s words that we are eager to amplify his voice and spread his message to even more people.

We’ve compiled our notes below. We’d love to hear your thoughts. We hope this inspires you to ACT COURAGEOUSLY as much as it inspired us to do so.

Love,

HH & TCone

On the importance of privacy:

• ‘If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear’ originated as a Nazi propaganda campaign — dangerous argument against defending privacy.
• Privacy gives you space to craft your identity.
• Privacy gives you space to make mistakes without being beholden to a mistake forever.
• None of the important counterculture movements of the past (e.g. suffragettes, civil rights) could’ve gained momentum without initial privacy. Privacy allowed the critical mass to form to launch these movements.
• The purpose of surveillance is not counterterrorism. Surveillance isn’t about safety. It’s about spying and control. It’s more about power than lost lives (which is usually used as rationale for giving power).

On privacy & technology:

• “The challenge here is that law doesn’t seem to be working. Technology is outpacing our ability to properly regulate it by consensus.”
• “Black letter law is beginning to fail. Letters on the page can’t jump up and protect your rights. We have to find new means of enforcing rights.”
• Check out Brave (new browser with built-in ad blocking)
• On Google/Facebook/tech companies: “[Especially in California/Silicon Valley], we have a surveillance economy, which is being spread and evangelized throughout the world. And it’s making so much money that it’s making people think if we can do it we should.”
• “One solution is to use the same things that are being used on us to protect ourselves.”

On “Hero or Traitor?”:

• “The question isn’t whether I’m a good or bad guy — it’s about whether you want to know the truth (about what the government has done and what the results are on your privacy and freedom).
• “This country needs more Edward Snowdens” — Daniel Ellsberg
• “We have not just rights, we have not just capabilities, we have responsibilities that go beyond just being good citizens that follow the law.”
• “It’s realizing that morality is not the same thing as legality.”
• “At the end of the day we need to look at the facts: Are they true? Are they material?”
• “Nearly everything we know about our national security is wrong. Where does that leave us when it’s time to cast our vote?”
• “If our mistakes are ever to be corrected, they must be known.”
• “There’s nothing more American than wanting to know what’s going on.”
• “I would do it again and I would do it sooner. I regret that it took me so long to develop the skepticism to question what we were doing.”

On Edward’s leak process:

• Collected data on:

1. Clear violations of the Constitution that should be published
2. Data Snowden didn’t intend to be published but may be useful for enabling courts and journalists to hold executive branch accountable from simply claiming something is a secret when it’s not.

• Asked that journalists don’t publish 1. unless they can prove correct.
• Prior to publishing, check with government first to ensure that they have correct information and to give officials an opportunity to respond.

On creating change:

• “[Whistleblowers are] people who are elected by circumstance. They are witnesses to something going wrong. There are no heroes, just heroic acts.”
• “You don’t have the be president to make a difference. Do what you can. It is not enough to believe that it is wrong. If you see injustice, stand up and say something about it. If you want to see a better world [you must make it happen].”
• “So long as there’s injustice in the world, there is a clear project to work on.”
• “Dark though the clouds may be — we see ACLU donations swelling, increased NGO participation, newspaper subscriptions on the rise […] people are realizing afresh that democracy is not an inheritance but a challenge. This is a thing that will require constant effort and tireless sacrifice. […] This makes me hopeful that though we may see dark days ahead, we are learning how to resist injustice and how to do so effectively.”

Finally, action items for ALL OF US:

• Follow twitter.com/snowden
• Pay for a news subscription
• Donate to the ACLU
• Donate to Freedom of the Press
• Stand up for the things you believe in (don’t just believe them)
• ACT COURAGEOUSLY

THANK YOU FOR READING!