NSA leaker Edward Snowden spoke at South by Southwest Interactive Monday afternoon to discuss the impact of surveillance in the technological world.
Snowden has been living in Russia since he leaked classified information on how he was being paid by the National Security Agency to wiretap American citizens, exposing broad surveillance programs.
Members of the U.S. Congress are not happy SXSW is giving Snowden this platform. Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to SXSW organizers asking them to cancel Snowden’s Google Hangout.
“Certainly an organization of your caliber can attract experts on these topics with knowledge superior to a man who was hired as a systems administrator and whose only apparent qualification is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin,” said Rep. Pompeo. “As organizers, SXSW agrees that a healthy debate with regard to the limits of surveillance is vital to the future of the online ecosystem.”
Watch Edwards Snowden’s Google Hangout at SXSW Interactive:
