The ongoing revelations of the National Security Agency’s dragnet surveillance practices are “causing society to push for political reforms, oversight and new laws,” writes whistleblower Edward Snowden in an open letter titled “A Manifesto for the Truth” in which he calls for continued international action against the worst offenders of global privacy infringement.
The letter, published in German in the news magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday, highlights how Snowden’s leaks have spawned a crucial debate on the NSA and other surveillance agencies’ tactics, and calls for continued international pressure against such governmental overreach.
“We have a moral duty to ensure that our laws and values limit surveillance programs and protect human rights,” Snowden writes in the letter reportedly penned in Moscow on Friday.
“While the NSA and GCHQ (the British national security agency) appear to be the worst offenders — at least according to the documents that are currently public,” he writes, “we cannot forget that mass surveillance is a global problem and needs a global solution.”
That solution, according to Snowden, is now possible due to increasing public awareness.
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