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theregister.co.uk wrote:Whistleblower Edward Snowden has appeared on stage at a TED conference in Canada via a remote-controlled robotic screen – and was hailed as a hero by the Web's founding father Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

"I grew up not just thinking about the internet but in the internet, and while I never thought I'd grow up to defend it in such a direct and practical manner, I think there's something poetic about one of the sons of the internet has become close to the internet as a result of political expression," Snowden told Sir Tim on stage.

"I believe a Magna Carta for the internet is exactly what we need. We need to encode our values not just in writing but in the structure of the internet."

Snowden was speaking from an undisclosed location in Russia via his robotic avatar, and was able to move around the stage checking out the audience via an attached camera during his presentation. The connection wasn't perfect, with Sir Tim jokingly suggesting the NSA was trying to block the transmission.

The ex-NSA technician then took questions on his actions so far and what was still left to be leaked from the cache of documents he swiped from the intelligence agency's network and handed to select journalists to publish.

"There are absolutely more revelations to come," Snowden said. "I don’t think there's any question that some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come."

Snowden said the US and UK's online mass-surveillance program dubbed PRISM had allowed the NSA to deputize corporate America to deliver innocent citizens' private data into the hands of spies, and not just the metadata. Some companies had fought against such a move, but all had eventually kowtowed.

The NSA had also put the entire American economy at risk by weakening cryptographic standards to allow them to be broken. The project, called BULLRUN by the NSA and EDGEHILL by the British spies at GCHQ (named after the first battle in both countries' respective civil wars) meant that anyone with sufficient resources could crack the encryption and destroy the value of intellectual property.

The US agency had lied to Congress over its capabilities, Snowden claimed, and had also broken its own internal rules with some of its eavesdropping activities. He denied setting out to harm America, his home country, and was dismissive of criticisms of his actions by former Vice President Dick Cheney, who described Snowden as a traitor.

"Dick Cheney is really something else," Snowden said with a grin. "The prerogatives of people like Dick Cheney do not keep the nation safe. The public interest is not always the same as the national interest. Going to war with people who are not our enemy in places that are not a threat, doesn't make us safe, and that applies in Iraq and on the internet."

Snowden said that there was no evidence that the mass surveillance schemes set up by the NSA had done anything to catch terrorists. Indeed, he said that in the intelligence community the threat of terrorism was called a "cover for action," something to trigger an emotional response that can be used to get powers that would otherwise be unavailable.

As for the personal attacks and threats made on Snowden's life, the fugitive said that they didn’t worry him. He was there to do a job for the American people irrespective of his personal condition.

"Who I am really doesn’t matter. Even if I'm the worst person in the world, you can hate me and move on," he said. "What really matters are the issues. What matters is the kind of government we want, the kind of internet we want, and the kind of relationship between people and society and that's what I'm hoping the debate will move towards."

General Havoc wrote:The Magna Carta? The document that was repudiated six times and in fact burnt by the king that issued it? The one that abolished the right of appeal for the lower orders, codified Villeinage as a permanent state to be passed down through the generations, and established the Barons as authorities without check over the subjects in their domains? That Magna Carta is the one we need for the internet?

General Havoc wrote:I'm simply sick of Edward Snowden's antics. It takes some balls to deliver a speech glorifying yourself in a symposium dedicated to your greatness, and then end it by telling his detractors to "move on" as he apparently has? He received Death Threats for doing what he did? I got death threats at the age of 17 for running a forum game. I don't recall conferences being called to celebrate my daring defiance of would-be censors. Death threats on the internet are the default state of play. There is nobody who has been active online for more than five years who has not received a death threat as far as I know, least of all someone who does something as high profile as he does.

General Havoc wrote:If what really matters are the issues, then it's time that Edward Snowden shut the hell up and actually let someone competent to do so discuss the issues in question. Because until he decides to stop publicizing himself as the most awesome person to ever live, I don't feel any compunction to regard him as anything but what he presents himself as. And if he wants the discussion to focus on the "issues" something more substantive than "Dick Cheney (who has been out of power for six years) is a bad guy" might be useful.

rhoenix wrote:That may be the case, but I doubt that the various US and international intelligence services were offended by you running forum games.

rhoenix wrote:I'm simply not seeing the self-congratulations on his part that you are. I grant that because of what he did, there's going to be an inevitable cult of personality - however, he's not calling for armed insurrection as a result of it, or anything else. What he has done is state his support for something like a Magna Carta / Constitution / etc. for the Internet, as otherwise moneyed interests have far more power and influence over it than the ordinary citizenry.

General Havoc wrote:And I also doubt they stooped to posting death threats to internet forums. He's the one who brought up online death threats, not me.

General Havoc wrote:I never said anything about armed insurrection, I said that he's full of himself and relentlessly promotes his status as the Champion of Liberty to the exclusion of any actual purpose. I don't care if he lives in Russia forever or comes back to the US. I care that rather than discuss "the issues", all he did was state support for a sentiment as facile as "the internet should be free". A Constitution for the internet is a statement without meaning, as is a "Magna Carta" for the internet. It's plainly not the real Magna Carta, and if all he meant was the general symbolic meaning of "a guarantee of freedom", then why is this noteworthy at all? "The internet should be free" is not exactly a revolutionary or new idea. What is he calling for, beyond some generalized statement about internet liberty, the same statement that thousands of people make daily, some of them under considerable danger? What exactly does he have to contribute to this conversation besides a backhanded slap at someone who's been out of power for six months? What exactly is a Constitution for the Internet, beyond some wonderfully generic declaration that freedom is good? Why, in essence, are we listening to Edward Snowden when all he has to offer is statements without meaning and self-congratulation?

huffingtonpost wrote:"It's important to bear in mind I'm being called a traitor by men like former Vice President Dick Cheney," Snowden said. "This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead."

"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him ... the better off we all are," he continued. "If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school."

General Havoc wrote:There is nobody who has been active online for more than five years who has not received a death threat as far as I know, least of all someone who does something as high profile as he does.

rhoenix wrote:Sure, he could have just gone with "no comment" or the like, but I don't see his response as particularly ire-worthy. What are you seeing of Snowden's words that I'm not? How do those words nullify the case he's attempting to make regarding the Internet needing a document of rights?

General Havoc wrote:He isn't making a case for the internet needing anything. He's stating an obvious platitude about how the Internet should be protected, without adding a single substantive matter to the conversation. He does not explain what he means by the Magna Carta of the internet, nor how he will deal with the consequent issues that will arise whatever he wishes to implement. He doesn't explain what he means in any regard. So what exactly is there for me to talk about his "proposal"?

If the TED talk gave more details that can actually be discussed, by all means post them. But I addressed the only issues in this article that I have anything to say about, because the mere fact that Edward Snowden thinks the internet is a good thing is not news.

General Havoc wrote:There is nobody who has been active online for more than five years who has not received a death threat as far as I know, least of all someone who does something as high profile as he does.