sir tim berners-lee, world wide web founder, backs edward snowden _ mail online

8/13/2019 Sir Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web Founder, Backs Edward Snowden _ Mail Online

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World Wide Web founder backs Snowden,

saying the world needs whistleblowers andthat they should be protected

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that whistleblowers are essential for society

He claimed that checks and balances around the world had failedSnowden became a wanted man seven months ago for leaking secrets

By Hayley O'keeffe

PUBLISHED:10:09, 26 December 2013 | UPDATED:18:10, 26 December 2013

The inventor of the World Wide Web has spoken in support of whistleblower Edward Snowden and saidhe should be protected.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that the former US intelligence contractor and others like him play an essentialrole in exposing abuses of power, and should not be punished.

The computer scientist also claimed that checks and balances in the US and around the world hadfailed, and that even with reforms, the system was unlikely to get better.

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Sir Tim Berners-Lee has spoken in support of w histleblower Edward Snowden

Sir Tim made his comments to the BBC after Channel Four broadcast Mr Snowden's alternativeChristmas message yesterday.

The internet founder said: 'When checks and balances break down, all society can rely on are thewhistleblowers.'

He added: 'And because they have been performing this important function of saving society when it isin its most desperate state, therefore we need, I think, to have a form of international recognition forwhistleblowers.'


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Recorded in Russia, Edward Snowden delivered Channel 4's 'Alternative Christmas

Mes sage' this Christmas

And Sir Tim added that whistleblowers would be particularly important in the future saying that someleaks 'really help and not hurt humanity.'

He said: 'I don't think an automatic Nobel prize is necessarily part of that, but some way of generating an

amnesty.'

He added: 'We must assume that those systems in the future will break down too.'

In his Christmas message Mr Snowden, who revealed details of electronic surveillance by American andBritish spy services, warned of the dangers posed by a loss of privacy.

Snowden warns of the dangers pos ed by loss of privacy


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Video Source Channel 4

Christmas me ssage: Edward Snowden speaks during an interview in Hong Kong

In a two-minute video recorded in Moscow, where Snowden has been granted temporary asylum, hespoke of concerns over surveillance in an age of huge technological advancement.

'We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for theprivacy of the average person,' he said.

'A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,' said Snowden.

'They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysedthought. And that's a problem because privacy matters, privacy is what allows us to determine who weare and who we want to be.'
http://www.channel4.com/


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The 'Alternative Christmas Message', broadcast annually on Channel 4 television since 1993, mimics theformat of the yearly address to the nation by Queen Elizabeth.

Previous participants have included then President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2008 and popularcartoon characters Marge and Lisa Simpson in 2004.

Snowden w arned of dangers to democracy in the first video released of the fugitive

since arriving in Russia

On Tuesday, Snowden - who disclosed thousands of confidential documents - said in an interviewpublished in the Washington Post that he had achieved what he set out to do.

'For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished,' he said.

Snowden left his NSA post in Hawaii in May and went public with his first revelations from Hong Kong afew weeks later.

In June, he left for Russia and stayed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for nearly six weeks until theKremlin granted him temporary one-year asylum.

The United States has revoked his passport and demanded he be sent home to face charges forstealing secrets.


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President Barak Obama: Last w eek a White House-appointed panel propose d curbs

on NSA surveillance

Earlier this month there were signs of thawing attitudes when Richard Ledgett - a top NSA official wholeads a taskforce at the agency responding to the leaks - left open the option for Snowden to return tothe United States in an amnesty.

'It's worth having a conversation about,' he told CBS.

'I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured and my bar for thoseassurances would be very high,' Ledgett said. Senior officials in the Obama administration remainopposed to such a move.

Last week a White House-appointed panel proposed curbs on some key NSA surveillance operations,recommending limits on a programme to collect records of billions of telephone calls, and new testsbefore Washington spies on foreign leaders.

'The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technologythat surrounds us and the government that regulates it,' Snowden said in the Christmas address.

'Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it reallywants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.'

'HE SHOULD BE HANGED BY THE NECK UNTIL DEAD' CLAIMS EX CIA BOSS

The former director of the CIA has spoken out over calls to grant clemency to NSA whistleblower EdwardSnowden.

Robert James Woolsey weighed into the argument saying that the former contractor, who is currentlyhiding in Moscow, should be 'hanged by the neck until dead.'


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Former CIA director Robert James Woolsey has said that Edward Snowden s hould

be 'hanged by the neck until dead'

It is thought that Mr Woolsey's comments reflect the current thinking in Washington.

However, last week a White House-appointed committee recommended key reforms which would curbNSA surveillance operations.

But disclosing the classified information, Mr Snowden committed crimes, but many feel that he should beallowed to return to the US.

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where-is-the-truth,Not-found, 9 hours ago

Tim Berners-Lee is widely known as a man of integrity as well as obvious ly having in depth knowledge of Information

Technology. He should be carefully lis tened to when he speaks.

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ken mist,paris, 9 hours ago

When governments become renegade and their activitieq devoid of principles and morals we need whis tle blowers.

They say to US if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. The same goes for governments but they conveniently

ignore it. To let it continue will see our rights eroded away before we realise it.


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Nabokov,Saint Petersburg, Russ ia, 9 hours ago

If you give a government some new form of power, it's very naive to believe that they won't use it. Governments (and their

subordinate agencies ) crave power and when they get som e new tool of power, they'll always exploit it. Always have.

Always will. Yet stil l the "Snowden-Is-A-Traitor" rentamob just can't see the big picture. They can't grasp the fact that if the

inventor of the World-Wide-Web (which they are using to read these comm ents!) states that Snowden's actions are

jus tified, then jus t maybe it's true! I firmly believe that history will vindicate Snowden's actions . Fifty years from now people

as yet unborn will view him as a hero.


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Jesuis,Reading, 9 hours ago

Tony blair and George Bush has a lot to hide from its people. They and their decendants wil l suffer for this inhumanity

they have placed on mankind. All liars mus t be removed from positions of power.


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sir tim berners-lee, world wide web founder, backs edward snowden _ mail online

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