Snowden on the NSA: 'They're setting fire to the future of the internet'

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Beaming in via a livestream from Russia, Edward Snowden made a rare public appearance at the South By Southwest Interactive festival. He didn't mince any words: During the hour-long chat hosted in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, the former National Security Agency employee-turned-leaker told attendees they are "firefighters" against the government's surveillance state and warned about its future.
Per Yahoo, Snowden said the NSA is "setting fire to the future of the internet" and that the "result has been an adversarial internet." He added that the NSA's surveillance state is "nothing we asked for, it's not something we wanted." Head on over to Yahoo to read a complete wrap-up.
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A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
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