
This year the most trending topic at South by Southwest, SXSW, is not the innovative new technology, new films or music, but Snowden. According to FleishmanHillard's #SXSW 2014 Trending Right Now, all top 40 trends at SXSW reference Edward Snowden.
Live streaming from Russia, Snowden spoke to an audience of over 300 through a choppy Google Hangout video running through multiple proxy servers to conceal his location. He urged the many internet experts to work to design encrypted communication technology to battle the global surveillance that is inhibiting the nature and future of the internet. And he asked them to share it with the average computer users. Now one of the most famous, or infamous depending on your views of privacy and the US Constitution, whistleblowers in US history. His explanation for his actions- defending the constitution and allowing not only American people, but people of the world to learn about the unmonitored secret spying that has been taking place.
What does it mean when one of the biggest interactive technology festivals in the world invites a speaker that is currently being hunted by the US Government but thanked by millions of Americans? It tops the Twitter charts, that's for sure. A key moment from his hour long live stream, when referencing his NSA leaks: "I would do it again."
Live streaming from Russia, Snowden spoke to an audience of over 300 through a choppy Google Hangout video running through multiple proxy servers to conceal his location. He urged the many internet experts to work to design encrypted communication technology to battle the global surveillance that is inhibiting the nature and future of the internet. And he asked them to share it with the average computer users. Now one of the most famous, or infamous depending on your views of privacy and the US Constitution, whistleblowers in US history. His explanation for his actions- defending the constitution and allowing not only American people, but people of the world to learn about the unmonitored secret spying that has been taking place.
What does it mean when one of the biggest interactive technology festivals in the world invites a speaker that is currently being hunted by the US Government but thanked by millions of Americans? It tops the Twitter charts, that's for sure. A key moment from his hour long live stream, when referencing his NSA leaks: "I would do it again."