Contextual Analysis:

Edward Snowden, Surveillance and Social Media

 I believe my first introduction of the name Edward Snowden began in 2013 from Fox News when the U.S. Government announced that Snowden was wanted for espionage and they implied that he leaked information to Russia. It did not look good! I felt fortunate to catch a Snowden interview with Brian Williams in 2014 which seemed to paint quite a different picture.  I came to understand that he was exposing that our Constitutional Rights were being violated. He also revealed that our online interactions and phone use were not private. I enjoyed learning more about the situation in New Social Media as we were encouraged to watch United States of Secrets and for this project I felt it would be interesting to explore the situation further.

 In my findings  Edward Snowden became a social media hero, and shortly after his interview in Hong Kong an online petition was created to pardon him. I am also including an example of a tweet that was shared about Snowden:  " Try to extradite Ed Snowden & you'll get your very own Arab spring. Your spy party is over & we will protect our Internet HERO."

 

 However, even after obtaining over 100,000 signatures in November 2013, clemency was not granted by President Obama. And in March 2015 an article states that Obama is 600 days overdue to respond to the petition.
 Apparently President Obama is much less forgiving than other presidents too. Before Obama there have only been 3 charges under the Espionage Act since 1917. “Since President Obama took office, it has been invoked seven times as of June 2013.”

Though most Social Media users consider Snowden a hero, they are not likely to discuss him or surveillance online. Therefore surveillance has caused fear in online use. This change in use is called "the spiral of silence".  Fear has also been known to cause reluctance for signing petitions for Snowden. .

It isn’t just citizen journalism that has been quieted by the NSA surveillance; it is also professional journalists all over the world. They depend on privacy to keep their sources anonymous and safe.

 Julia Anguin is an investigative reporter who feels that many Social Media users are too complaisant about surveillance. Her speech Is Privacy Becoming a Luxury Good?, given at a tech conference was included in an article in the Daily Dot entitled How social media makes us feel less upset about surveillance by Sara Mirk. Anguin explains that she spent over 2500 dollars one year to try to protect her privacy. Encryption was something no one but her kids wanted to try, so that was a bit of a problem. She also said that decades ago people would have been much more outraged to know that most everything we do is monitored by the government. And though all of us are watched it is only the few that pay the price. A documentary made to raise awareness of an Arab community in America that felt very hurt by surveillance is mentioned in the article. It is called The Feeling of Being Watched. After watching this trailer, it seemed to me that surveillance caused others to avoid people being watched.

Snowden’s suggestions in a 2014  Social Times article said “ people who care about their privacy should stay away from popular consumer Internet services like Dropbox, Facebook and Google.” He also suggested “using alternative storage services like SpiderOak, which does support encryption, although he was careful to mention that much of the technology the public needs hasn’t been invented or popularized yet.”

I also found out that a movie had been made about Edward Snowden, in a biography online about him.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras created a documentary called Citezenfour which was made in 2014. Snowden had contacted Poitras who filmed a meeting with both the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and herself before documents were handed over. This film won an Academy Award in 2015! In acceptance of the award Poitras invited Snowden’s girlfriend Lindsey Mills along with the winning team to join her onstage. As part of her speech she said "When the decisions that rule us are taken in secret, we lose the power to control and govern ourselves."

Since the release of the documentary Snowden spoke to a college in Canada via video conference, where he told them "the problem with mass surveillance is when you collect everything, you understand nothing," and in context of government spying he said that it "fundamentally changes the balance of power between the citizen and the state."

After the announcement in class that a bust of Edward Snowden had been put up in a significant park in Brooklyn and then removed by officials, I found a refreshing article on Mashable that reported a hologram image was created by artists and shown in place of the missing bust!

Another occurrence that appeared in a Mashable article is an appearance of Snowden in the White House. I love how creative people are!

“The last place you'd expect to see whistleblower Edward Snowden — who currently has asylum in Russia — is at the White House. Yet, if you navigate to the White House in Google Maps, you'll see a location called "Edwards Snow Den" listed inside the building.

If you click on that location in Google Maps, you'll see it listed as a snowboard shop, located at address 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20500”  The prank has since been remedied.

That post on Mashable is a bit silly but I have found information on that Social Media site very informative!

Mashable also shared positive opinions of millenials in the US and Internationally toward Edward Snowden.

“ In most countries, a majority of those surveyed have heard at least a little about Edward Snowden. Of those surveyed in the United States, 56% reported a "positive opinion" of Snowden; in continental Europe, approximately eight in 10 millennials, or 80% of those surveyed, had a positive opinion of him.”

 Knowing that many citizens value what Edward Snowden has done is comforting, but I wondered what else had been done about government surveillance.

Since signing a petition from the ACLU they have been sending emails pertinent to the subject of Edward Snowden. A recent email requested action to let the Governor of Virginia know he should restrict mass surveillance of Virginians. Apparently there is a campaign to stop the surveillance state called OffNow. They are asking citizens to contact Legislators to let them know this is important and that they support it. They need to know this so it will be debated and voted upon. This is supporting HB150 and the Fourth AmendmentProtection Act.

I found some of the previous information online in an article from Truthout called Utah Tries WhereCongress Fails to Keep NSA Within Constitution.  This article states that  after the Senate in Utah failed to move the USA Freedom Act forward, another hearing began for a bill to turn off water and other state assistance to the recently-opened NSA data center. I found out that 1.7 million gallons of water is required daily to prevent servers from overheating and shutting down. It seems that Utah was pretty desperate to create jobs when they agreed to have the center.

 

The NSA data center originally opened the same year Edward Snowden blew the whistle on NSA.


The OffNow website shows actions by Governor Herbert. In April of 2014 he signed a bill “which thwarts some of the effects of the growing surveillance state”.

Banning Warrentless Data,“ HBO128 which previously passed the state senate by a vote of 28-0 and the house by a vote of 71-2, makes any electronic data obtained by law enforcement without a warrant inadmissible in a criminal proceeding. This includes data gathered by the NSA and shared through the super secret Special Operations Division (SOD) or fusion centers. The new law also stops Utah law enforcement from obtaining phone location data without a warrant.”

The Governor does not want to shut the NSA data center down.
"According to a Washington Post report, Herbert said he would not support the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, a proposed bill introduced last year by Rep. Marc Roberts that would set the stage to turn off the water to the NSA data center in Bluffdale."

The building of the NSA data center did not seem much of a concern to Utah until after Snowden’s revealing interview. There was thereafter a 40 person protest at the Capital building against NSA and Prism. 
 According to the article about the protest at the Capital:
 “NSA officials have said they chose Utah largely for its inexpensive electricity, among the nations cheapest. During a tour of the site in November, they also cited Utah's patriotism as a reason for picking the Bluffdale location.”

 Another article I found in the Tribune is about a smaller group of protesters prior to the center opening. One of the protesters said she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I noticed many other comments from what sounded like more members that believed it would be evil for their community to work at the NSA data center.  I also found in the comments, there is a Restore the Forth site on Facebook for social media users to follow. I believe some people are making efforts even though there is a lack of protesters in Utah for the NSA data center.

I wonder what else the 1.5 billion dollar building could be used for, and how the Federal Government would respond if Utah broke the agreement.

Although Edward Snowden is considered a hero to many people, his actions are not heroic to all. He is considered by some people a traitor and one of the most wanted men in the nation. He is a very controversial subject!

U.S. Technology Company’s have been hit hard from the whistle blowing.

— Microsoft has lost customers, including the government of Brazil.

IBM is spending more than a billion dollars to build data centers overseas to reassure foreign customers that their information is safe from prying eyes in the United States government.

And tech companies abroad, from Europe to South America, say they are gaining customers that are shunning United States providers, suspicious because of the revelations by Edward J. Snowden that tied these providers to the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance program.

Military Damage:

“The Pentagon might need to spend billions to overcome the damage done to military security by Edward Snowden's release of classified intelligence documents”

"For now that our enemies have been apprised of the methods we use to spy on them, they have implemented radical changes to the way they communicate, thereby making it immensely more difficult for the Western intelligence community to track their activities."

An image I found online shows that many Americans support surveillance.

 There is a decrease since Whistle blowers came forward.

Surveillance is a controversial subject also.  Hypocrisy is what seems to be emphasized in this poll.   
I find it interesting that American's feel they need to monitor their own leaders as much as leaders from other countries. 

  

My personal opinion for this study is that Social Media sites like Mashable and Restore the Fourth are great sources to stay informed. I generally have not followed the news through Social Media but I feel it is a good thing to add a few specific sites.  I think that posts on Social Media that show the way people are honoring Edward Snowden will encourage more responses. The actions that have been shown on Mashable seem very tame, so I doubt it will cause any harm. I believe they remind us of a problem that has not yet been remedied. I think Social Media is important for subjects like Edward Snowden and surveillance because news that requires inspection by the government certainly won't be offered, they don't want us to know. If I remember right, it is news papers that are under that scrutiny. It likely helps the legitimacy of Social Media stories that also appeared on national T.V. such as NBC airing interviews with Ed Snowden.
 
I am very glad to know of efforts to pardon Edward Snowden and restrict government surveillance. 
Snowden seems pretty legitimate with the American Civil Liberties Union helping him. The show United States of Secrets also gives Edward Snowden credibility.

 I do feel it is important to have protection from terrorist attacks, but I believe legally the way government has handled surveillance is wrong. They are not observing what was set up in the Constitution and did not get permission to change it. Edward Snowden seems sincere in his beliefs that abuse is taking place. A student in one of my classes also worked for the NSA and he believes it is abusive. It seems our values have greatly changed since the 70’s when President Nixon resigned as he was facing impeachment for doing to a few people what our government is doing, not only to this nation but to the entire world. It is sad that great damages have been done but there are some important changes that need to be made. There is a great deal of evidence that the U.S. Federal Government has obtained too much power over its citizens and the freedom we once enjoyed is being taken away.