WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:10.644 ♪♪ 00:00:10.644 --> 00:00:16.483 ♪♪ 00:00:16.483 --> 00:00:19.853 -Forget the politics, we have a national crisis. 00:00:19.853 --> 00:00:23.223 We are at war. There is no politics. 00:00:23.223 --> 00:00:25.993 -So our news cycle is changing, 00:00:25.993 --> 00:00:28.762 if not daily, then hourly or by the minute. 00:00:28.762 --> 00:00:32.833 And there's so much information out there today, 00:00:32.833 --> 00:00:36.103 and it's difficult to navigate the waters of the news. 00:00:36.103 --> 00:00:38.772 -Over 2,980 deaths. 00:00:38.772 --> 00:00:41.275 -It was another rough day for the financial markets. 00:00:41.275 --> 00:00:43.543 -They're going to do a 30-day extension. 00:00:43.543 --> 00:00:45.812 -Over 4,700 deaths... 00:00:45.812 --> 00:00:48.582 -...which means another month of this. 00:00:48.582 --> 00:00:50.350 -So one of the things I want to do is 00:00:50.350 --> 00:00:53.487 talk to some of the biggest thinkers in the world and say, 00:00:53.487 --> 00:00:55.856 "Hey, what are these problems, 00:00:55.856 --> 00:00:58.558 and what are the unforeseen consequences 00:00:58.558 --> 00:01:00.894 of what's happening in real time?" 00:01:00.894 --> 00:01:04.231 -We have entered into this next phase 00:01:04.231 --> 00:01:05.732 that has required me, 00:01:05.732 --> 00:01:08.502 under the circumstances, 00:01:08.502 --> 00:01:11.772 to advance a proclamation 00:01:11.772 --> 00:01:13.740 of a state of emergency 00:01:13.740 --> 00:01:15.175 in the state of California. 00:01:15.175 --> 00:01:17.678 -Now, one of the biggest questions is, 00:01:17.678 --> 00:01:19.646 all of these emergency measures, 00:01:19.646 --> 00:01:21.581 all of the data collection to sort of say, 00:01:21.581 --> 00:01:23.417 "Well, what's happening with the pandemic?" 00:01:23.417 --> 00:01:25.152 have knock-on effects. 00:01:25.152 --> 00:01:26.787 And I think one of the greatest thinkers 00:01:26.787 --> 00:01:29.056 around civil liberties 00:01:29.056 --> 00:01:31.291 and these unforeseen consequences 00:01:31.291 --> 00:01:32.592 is Edward Snowden. 00:01:32.592 --> 00:01:35.095 -This is the truth. This is what's happening. 00:01:35.095 --> 00:01:37.597 You should decide whether we need to be doing this. 00:01:37.597 --> 00:01:39.032 -So today we're going to talk to him 00:01:39.032 --> 00:01:42.502 about his thoughts on the COVID virus 00:01:42.502 --> 00:01:47.307 as well as, what does that mean for our civil liberties? 00:01:51.011 --> 00:01:52.813 Edward Snowden, thanks for being here today. 00:01:52.813 --> 00:01:54.348 -It's a pleasure to be with you. 00:01:54.348 --> 00:01:56.616 -Let's just jump into it. 00:01:56.616 --> 00:01:59.086 -Why does it seem like we're so ill-prepared? 00:01:59.086 --> 00:02:05.258 We're acting like COVID-19 is a never-seen-before virus 00:02:05.258 --> 00:02:07.127 and that this is just out of nowhere, 00:02:07.127 --> 00:02:08.662 surprise, surprise. 00:02:08.662 --> 00:02:11.231 You know, we had SARS, we had MERS. 00:02:11.231 --> 00:02:14.601 We've had these types of things before, 00:02:14.601 --> 00:02:17.137 and in fact, we knew 00:02:17.137 --> 00:02:21.308 that we were going to be having more of them, 00:02:21.308 --> 00:02:23.377 yet we were not set up, 00:02:23.377 --> 00:02:24.745 or it seems like 00:02:24.745 --> 00:02:26.947 we were completely taken aback 00:02:26.947 --> 00:02:30.183 that this is happening now 00:02:30.183 --> 00:02:33.420 and is having, you know, such a profound effect, 00:02:33.420 --> 00:02:37.424 when, if you talk to any epidemiologist or virologist, 00:02:37.424 --> 00:02:39.092 they knew that this was going to happen. 00:02:39.092 --> 00:02:41.294 -There is nothing more foreseeable 00:02:41.294 --> 00:02:44.931 as a public health crisis for, you know, again, 00:02:44.931 --> 00:02:48.235 a world where we are just living on top of each other 00:02:48.235 --> 00:02:52.205 in crowded and polluted cities 00:02:52.205 --> 00:02:54.141 than a pandemic. 00:02:54.141 --> 00:02:56.276 And yeah, every academic, every researcher 00:02:56.276 --> 00:02:59.446 who's looked at this knew this was coming. 00:02:59.446 --> 00:03:01.214 And in fact, even intelligence agencies, 00:03:01.214 --> 00:03:03.884 I can tell you firsthand because I used to read the reports, 00:03:03.884 --> 00:03:06.186 had been planning for pandemics. 00:03:06.186 --> 00:03:09.289 And yet when we needed it, the system has now failed us, 00:03:09.289 --> 00:03:11.525 and it has failed us comprehensively. 00:03:11.525 --> 00:03:16.096 And the thing that I find grotesque about this situation 00:03:16.096 --> 00:03:18.131 is that now the people who are being asked 00:03:18.131 --> 00:03:19.900 to sacrifice the most are the people 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:21.735 who are in the most precarious positions, 00:03:21.735 --> 00:03:23.737 who have the least to give. 00:03:23.737 --> 00:03:26.139 We're constantly being told 00:03:26.139 --> 00:03:28.909 we're the richest country in the world. 00:03:28.909 --> 00:03:31.511 But when people start losing their jobs, 00:03:31.511 --> 00:03:35.315 when rents become difficult to pay 00:03:35.315 --> 00:03:39.886 because there's no work for any waitress in any restaurant 00:03:39.886 --> 00:03:44.057 in New York right now, where are our resources? 00:03:44.057 --> 00:03:46.093 When our hospitals say they need ventilators, 00:03:46.093 --> 00:03:47.928 you know, where is all this great technology 00:03:47.928 --> 00:03:51.064 that's being used to surveil everybody, you know, 00:03:51.064 --> 00:03:54.701 down to the tiniest toenail when we need it to create things 00:03:54.701 --> 00:03:56.837 that actually save lives? 00:03:56.837 --> 00:04:00.307 -In South Korea, which has been successful 00:04:00.307 --> 00:04:03.577 in at least flattening their curve, 00:04:03.577 --> 00:04:06.847 the government's been sending text messages 00:04:06.847 --> 00:04:09.850 to people who have come into contact with people 00:04:09.850 --> 00:04:12.185 that they know have COVID-19, 00:04:12.185 --> 00:04:14.988 which means they know who has COVID-19, 00:04:14.988 --> 00:04:16.523 they know who they're meeting, 00:04:16.523 --> 00:04:18.758 they know their text message numbers. 00:04:18.758 --> 00:04:20.827 They know how to get in touch with them. 00:04:20.827 --> 00:04:23.997 -The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses data 00:04:23.997 --> 00:04:26.566 provided by local telecommunications companies. 00:04:26.566 --> 00:04:30.137 -Taiwan is doing a "mobile fence," so-called, 00:04:30.137 --> 00:04:32.072 where, if they know you're infected, 00:04:32.072 --> 00:04:33.907 they're going to put a mobile fence around you, 00:04:33.907 --> 00:04:35.575 and if you leave, you're going to get in trouble. 00:04:35.575 --> 00:04:37.611 If you leave your -- It's basically the -- 00:04:37.611 --> 00:04:40.580 your mobile phone is your new ankle bracelet. 00:04:40.580 --> 00:04:43.717 You know, we look at what China did, 00:04:43.717 --> 00:04:47.187 including welding certain doors shut, 00:04:47.187 --> 00:04:50.223 and we seem to be sort of knee-jerk, ad hoc, 00:04:50.223 --> 00:04:52.325 and we're, you know, culturally we can't do this, 00:04:52.325 --> 00:04:55.162 yet are our numbers are through the roof. 00:04:55.162 --> 00:04:58.765 So are autocratic regimes better 00:04:58.765 --> 00:05:01.935 at dealing with things like this than democratic ones? 00:05:01.935 --> 00:05:04.437 -I don't think so. I mean, there are arguments being made 00:05:04.437 --> 00:05:08.208 that China can do things that the United States can't. 00:05:08.208 --> 00:05:10.777 Now, that doesn't mean 00:05:10.777 --> 00:05:14.514 that what these autocratic countries are doing 00:05:14.514 --> 00:05:17.350 is actually more effective. 00:05:17.350 --> 00:05:20.954 There are really only two things that we know to be true. 00:05:20.954 --> 00:05:24.758 One is that no one knows the true number of infected 00:05:24.758 --> 00:05:28.495 because we can only in the absolute best case 00:05:28.495 --> 00:05:29.763 know the confirmed cases 00:05:29.763 --> 00:05:32.432 of people that we've actually tested. 00:05:32.432 --> 00:05:35.302 And once you start to layer in this autocratic, 00:05:35.302 --> 00:05:37.838 or I would argue, more authoritarian type 00:05:37.838 --> 00:05:40.473 of policy structure, 00:05:40.473 --> 00:05:45.812 what you end up seeing is that instead of policy 00:05:45.812 --> 00:05:48.882 being guided by science and facts, 00:05:48.882 --> 00:05:52.786 you begin to see things like information releases 00:05:52.786 --> 00:05:55.388 becoming political decisions. 00:05:55.388 --> 00:05:57.624 Now, this is not new. 00:05:57.624 --> 00:06:03.029 In fact, the Spanish flu around 1918 00:06:03.029 --> 00:06:05.565 did not actually originate in Spain. 00:06:05.565 --> 00:06:07.968 It was actually spreading in World War I 00:06:07.968 --> 00:06:09.769 through the trenches, 00:06:09.769 --> 00:06:12.072 where everybody was in terrible conditions. 00:06:12.072 --> 00:06:15.275 But the militaries of the day had imposed restrictions 00:06:15.275 --> 00:06:17.877 on what the press could report 00:06:17.877 --> 00:06:19.579 that could impact the war effort. 00:06:19.579 --> 00:06:22.215 And so Spain, being a neutral country, 00:06:22.215 --> 00:06:23.917 was publishing 00:06:23.917 --> 00:06:26.419 what they were actually seeing in their country. 00:06:26.419 --> 00:06:29.823 And so we just presumed, because they were the only ones 00:06:29.823 --> 00:06:32.659 that were telling the truth, that it came from them. 00:06:32.659 --> 00:06:35.629 Now we're a little further ahead than that today. 00:06:35.629 --> 00:06:41.101 But that doesn't erase the fact that people in power 00:06:41.101 --> 00:06:44.170 who see that there is a political advantage 00:06:44.170 --> 00:06:46.673 to disguising or concealing or massaging 00:06:46.673 --> 00:06:51.144 or denying numbers may choose to lie about it. 00:06:51.144 --> 00:06:54.014 It's happened before and it's almost certainly happening now. 00:06:54.014 --> 00:06:56.016 -If you're looking at countries like China, 00:06:56.016 --> 00:06:58.184 which seems to have flattened, 00:06:58.184 --> 00:07:01.388 how much can we trust that those numbers are actually true? 00:07:01.388 --> 00:07:02.756 -I don't think we can. 00:07:02.756 --> 00:07:05.258 Particularly, we see the Chinese government recently 00:07:05.258 --> 00:07:07.927 working to expel Western journalists 00:07:07.927 --> 00:07:10.397 at precisely this moment 00:07:10.397 --> 00:07:12.532 where we need credible independent reporting 00:07:12.532 --> 00:07:14.634 from this kind of region. 00:07:14.634 --> 00:07:17.203 And then there's all of these rumors and initial reports 00:07:17.203 --> 00:07:20.073 that say things like, you know, the number of urns shipments 00:07:20.073 --> 00:07:22.242 for burials have gone way up, 00:07:22.242 --> 00:07:25.679 way beyond what you would expect from the official numbers. 00:07:25.679 --> 00:07:28.615 And the fact that we cannot get independent verification 00:07:28.615 --> 00:07:32.185 of the facts gives us reason to doubt the official story. 00:07:32.185 --> 00:07:36.623 And the reality that we need to accept, 00:07:36.623 --> 00:07:39.426 which is an uncomfortable reality, 00:07:39.426 --> 00:07:43.563 is that even in places that are not autocratic regimes, 00:07:43.563 --> 00:07:44.898 they're going to have a second wave. 00:07:44.898 --> 00:07:46.299 They're going to have a third wave. 00:07:46.299 --> 00:07:48.368 They're going to have a fourth wave based on all of 00:07:48.368 --> 00:07:52.305 the best medical analysis that we have available today. 00:07:52.305 --> 00:07:54.708 I think -- I was reading 00:07:54.708 --> 00:07:57.010 a paper this morning that was from, 00:07:57.010 --> 00:08:00.013 I think, that the Chan School of Public Health 00:08:00.013 --> 00:08:02.649 at -- I think it was Harvard University 00:08:02.649 --> 00:08:04.884 that said pumping the brakes 00:08:04.884 --> 00:08:06.720 is going to have to be the new strategy. 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.222 -Which means we're at the beginning of, as you say, 00:08:09.222 --> 00:08:12.492 you know, second, third, fourth waves of this coming. 00:08:12.492 --> 00:08:18.298 And so all of these measures are going to get more severe. 00:08:18.298 --> 00:08:22.602 And what then happens to civil liberties, 00:08:22.602 --> 00:08:25.638 to privacy rights, to democracy? 00:08:25.638 --> 00:08:28.341 I mean, what are the knock-on effects that you can see? 00:08:28.341 --> 00:08:30.877 -I mean, this is really the central question 00:08:30.877 --> 00:08:33.313 of this moment in history. 00:08:33.313 --> 00:08:38.151 What we see is everyone is fearful and hopeless 00:08:38.151 --> 00:08:41.654 and so worried about today 00:08:41.654 --> 00:08:43.089 that we have really stopped thinking 00:08:43.089 --> 00:08:45.592 about what tomorrow will look like 00:08:45.592 --> 00:08:48.528 as a result of the decisions that we take today. 00:08:48.528 --> 00:08:52.298 We've seen in countries like Taiwan and South Korea 00:08:52.298 --> 00:08:54.968 and spreading also into more Western countries, 00:08:54.968 --> 00:08:56.469 and of course, in the United States, 00:08:56.469 --> 00:08:58.171 where it has begun as well, 00:08:58.171 --> 00:09:01.408 the tracking and monitoring of the movements 00:09:01.408 --> 00:09:03.643 of the whole of the human population 00:09:03.643 --> 00:09:06.713 through the movements of our phones. 00:09:06.713 --> 00:09:08.782 And it is, I think, 00:09:08.782 --> 00:09:11.251 something that should raise cause for concern, 00:09:11.251 --> 00:09:13.186 because when we talk about the applications, 00:09:13.186 --> 00:09:14.621 and I'm sure we will, 00:09:14.621 --> 00:09:16.890 they're saying they're using it for contact tracing. 00:09:16.890 --> 00:09:19.459 This person gets sick. Where did they go? 00:09:19.459 --> 00:09:22.262 Who may they come in contact with precisely 00:09:22.262 --> 00:09:24.998 so they can produce these kind of text messages 00:09:24.998 --> 00:09:26.366 that you describe? 00:09:26.366 --> 00:09:29.969 On its face, it seems like it might be a good idea. 00:09:29.969 --> 00:09:33.973 There is, of course, a natural presumed benefit here. 00:09:33.973 --> 00:09:37.110 And yet, this level of contact tracing, 00:09:37.110 --> 00:09:40.780 this method of contact tracing does not really work 00:09:40.780 --> 00:09:43.149 on a pandemic scale. 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:45.418 -You know, we're declaring, you know, 00:09:45.418 --> 00:09:47.987 various states of emergencies here and there, 00:09:47.987 --> 00:09:50.156 but these have sweeping powers. 00:09:50.156 --> 00:09:54.794 -What is being built is the architecture of oppression. 00:09:58.665 --> 00:10:04.904 ♪♪ 00:10:04.904 --> 00:10:07.307 -So when we look at South Korea, 00:10:07.307 --> 00:10:09.509 when we look at China, 00:10:09.509 --> 00:10:12.979 when we look at, you know, Taiwan, Singapore, 00:10:12.979 --> 00:10:16.616 countries like this, now America, 00:10:16.616 --> 00:10:20.086 there's all of this data being collected. 00:10:20.086 --> 00:10:24.224 How are the government -- So when, in in South Korea, 00:10:24.224 --> 00:10:25.692 I get a text saying, 00:10:25.692 --> 00:10:29.662 "Oh, you met Joe Blow. He might be infected. 00:10:29.662 --> 00:10:32.499 You should, you know, sequester yourself for 14 days." 00:10:32.499 --> 00:10:34.100 How are they getting that data? 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:36.135 -[ Laughs ] That's a good question. 00:10:36.135 --> 00:10:37.604 I mean, that's really the one 00:10:37.604 --> 00:10:39.806 that should make everyone just look at their phone 00:10:39.806 --> 00:10:42.542 and, you know, sort of raise an eyebrow. 00:10:42.542 --> 00:10:45.245 There are a number of ways that you can track the location 00:10:45.245 --> 00:10:47.380 of someone through their phone. 00:10:47.380 --> 00:10:50.049 There are these cell phone towers themselves, 00:10:50.049 --> 00:10:53.186 but there's also the wireless network 00:10:53.186 --> 00:10:54.787 that you're connected to. 00:10:54.787 --> 00:10:57.423 And then what other wireless networks around you 00:10:57.423 --> 00:10:59.025 that you're not connected to -- 00:10:59.025 --> 00:11:02.061 this you can think of as what wireless networks 00:11:02.061 --> 00:11:04.163 your phone can hear. 00:11:04.163 --> 00:11:07.934 And so these wireless network identifiers are then collected 00:11:07.934 --> 00:11:10.470 and they're mapped out against GPS, 00:11:10.470 --> 00:11:14.407 and then they know if you can see mom's Wi-fi 00:11:14.407 --> 00:11:17.810 and neighbor Ted's Wi-fi and the library Wi-fi 00:11:17.810 --> 00:11:20.180 all at the same time, 00:11:20.180 --> 00:11:22.615 you have to be within range of these things. 00:11:22.615 --> 00:11:25.118 It becomes a proxy for location. 00:11:25.118 --> 00:11:27.854 Now that we know all of our phones 00:11:27.854 --> 00:11:30.657 can and are being tracked at all times 00:11:30.657 --> 00:11:33.026 just by being turned on -- 00:11:33.026 --> 00:11:35.695 The phone companies have it at a bare minimum. 00:11:35.695 --> 00:11:36.996 Facebook probably has it. 00:11:36.996 --> 00:11:39.999 Google probably has it. Apple probably has it. 00:11:39.999 --> 00:11:42.602 And many, many other companies you've never even heard of 00:11:42.602 --> 00:11:44.737 that run ad networks. 00:11:44.737 --> 00:11:46.973 What this really means 00:11:46.973 --> 00:11:51.611 in a France or a United States 00:11:51.611 --> 00:11:53.179 is they go, "Well, look, 00:11:53.179 --> 00:11:55.415 we're aware of privacy concerns, so what we're going to do 00:11:55.415 --> 00:11:58.918 is we're going to depersonalize this information, 00:11:58.918 --> 00:12:01.154 we're going to 'anonymize' it, 00:12:01.154 --> 00:12:02.589 and we're not going to look at individuals. 00:12:02.589 --> 00:12:06.459 We're going to look at the flows of movement of these phones. 00:12:06.459 --> 00:12:08.261 Right? We're not looking at one phone. 00:12:08.261 --> 00:12:11.297 We're looking at the aggregate movements of phones." 00:12:11.297 --> 00:12:14.167 The problem is, if you're not tracking one infection 00:12:14.167 --> 00:12:15.535 or 100 infections, 00:12:15.535 --> 00:12:18.838 but you're tracking 100,000 infections, 00:12:18.838 --> 00:12:20.840 contact-tracing quickly becomes useless. 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:25.678 And more, the precision of location information 00:12:25.678 --> 00:12:29.816 is either so rough 00:12:29.816 --> 00:12:32.385 that it is largely useless, which is the case 00:12:32.385 --> 00:12:34.153 if we're talking about the cellphone networks, 00:12:34.153 --> 00:12:35.855 the cellphone towers you're near, 00:12:35.855 --> 00:12:40.526 to very, very precise location information, 00:12:40.526 --> 00:12:42.128 in which case this information 00:12:42.128 --> 00:12:44.797 when you're applying it at scale, 00:12:44.797 --> 00:12:48.534 cannot be anonymized in a meaningful way. 00:12:48.534 --> 00:12:50.103 And then there's this big question of, 00:12:50.103 --> 00:12:52.639 well, where does all that information go? 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:54.007 How is it controlled? 00:12:54.007 --> 00:12:57.010 Who's it being used -- It's information about me. 00:12:57.010 --> 00:12:58.778 I should have some influence over it. 00:12:58.778 --> 00:13:01.214 I should have control over it. 00:13:01.214 --> 00:13:02.915 But unfortunately, in the United States, 00:13:02.915 --> 00:13:04.917 to a large degree, you don't. 00:13:04.917 --> 00:13:09.555 There is no basic privacy law in the United States. 00:13:09.555 --> 00:13:11.157 We need to be able to make sure 00:13:11.157 --> 00:13:14.594 that the brakes that are being pumped 00:13:14.594 --> 00:13:18.431 are on the pandemic 00:13:18.431 --> 00:13:20.333 rather than on our society. 00:13:20.333 --> 00:13:23.436 -You know, it seems that this is 00:13:23.436 --> 00:13:28.641 maybe the greatest question of the modern era 00:13:28.641 --> 00:13:31.177 around civil liberties, 00:13:31.177 --> 00:13:35.148 around the right to privacy. 00:13:35.148 --> 00:13:38.918 Yet no one's asking this question. 00:13:38.918 --> 00:13:42.822 We really don't hear a lot about it. 00:13:42.822 --> 00:13:47.627 And so now this is probably the largest societal 00:13:47.627 --> 00:13:52.031 zeitgeist change to, "Yes, have the information 00:13:52.031 --> 00:13:53.900 because we have to stop this thing." 00:13:53.900 --> 00:13:56.069 You know, we're declaring, you know, 00:13:56.069 --> 00:13:58.738 various states of emergencies here and there. 00:13:58.738 --> 00:14:01.074 But these have sweeping powers. 00:14:01.074 --> 00:14:05.411 So we're sitting here in America quarantined and saying, 00:14:05.411 --> 00:14:08.715 "Okay, what does this mean going forward?" 00:14:08.715 --> 00:14:11.017 -When I think about the future, 00:14:11.017 --> 00:14:15.922 when any of us look at where this is heading, 00:14:15.922 --> 00:14:18.191 we need to think about where we've been, 00:14:18.191 --> 00:14:21.194 and sadly, these kind of emergency powers 00:14:21.194 --> 00:14:23.396 that are born out of crises 00:14:23.396 --> 00:14:25.465 have a perfect history of abuse. 00:14:25.465 --> 00:14:26.733 I mean, down the board, 00:14:26.733 --> 00:14:28.468 whenever you look at these things, 00:14:28.468 --> 00:14:31.571 the funniest part about it in a dark way 00:14:31.571 --> 00:14:33.606 is that the emergency never ends. 00:14:33.606 --> 00:14:35.007 It becomes normalized. 00:14:35.007 --> 00:14:37.443 When you talk about mass surveillance, 00:14:37.443 --> 00:14:40.646 the Bush-era warrantless wiretapping program, 00:14:40.646 --> 00:14:44.517 only part of it was shut down, and it's rolled over 00:14:44.517 --> 00:14:46.185 and it's rolled over and it's rolled over. 00:14:46.185 --> 00:14:47.687 And we've performed things at the edges, 00:14:47.687 --> 00:14:50.957 but the basic practices of what was supposed to be 00:14:50.957 --> 00:14:52.291 a stopgap emergency, 00:14:52.291 --> 00:14:55.194 which was in response to another stopgap emergency, 00:14:55.194 --> 00:14:57.396 was which was, of course, the legacy of 9/11 00:14:57.396 --> 00:14:58.865 and the Patriot Act. 00:14:58.865 --> 00:15:03.870 And we are still today engaged in the same wars 00:15:03.870 --> 00:15:06.139 that we declared nearly 20 years ago 00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:09.142 that we have not managed to escape. 00:15:09.142 --> 00:15:11.778 You know, we had, as a result of 9/11, 00:15:11.778 --> 00:15:14.046 the rise of the nuclear Iran 00:15:14.046 --> 00:15:16.883 because their counterbalance in Iraq was ruined. 00:15:16.883 --> 00:15:22.522 We saw authoritarianism begin to creep across Western societies, 00:15:22.522 --> 00:15:26.759 places we wouldn't expect, like Hungary and Poland. 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:30.129 As authoritarianism spreads, 00:15:30.129 --> 00:15:34.333 as emergency laws proliferate, 00:15:34.333 --> 00:15:39.005 as we sacrifice our rights, 00:15:39.005 --> 00:15:42.508 we also sacrifice our capability 00:15:42.508 --> 00:15:47.246 to arrest this slide into a less liberal and less free world. 00:15:47.246 --> 00:15:50.950 Do you truly believe that when the first wave, the second wave, 00:15:50.950 --> 00:15:53.186 the 16th wave of the coronavirus 00:15:53.186 --> 00:15:55.621 is a long-forgotten memory, 00:15:55.621 --> 00:15:57.957 that these capabilities will not be kept, 00:15:57.957 --> 00:16:00.359 that these data sets will not be kept? 00:16:00.359 --> 00:16:02.929 Will those capabilities begin to be applied 00:16:02.929 --> 00:16:04.530 to small-time criminality? 00:16:04.530 --> 00:16:07.033 Will they begin to be applied to political analysis? 00:16:07.033 --> 00:16:09.001 Will they begin to be applied 00:16:09.001 --> 00:16:11.437 for doing things like performing a census? 00:16:11.437 --> 00:16:14.273 Will they be used for political polling? 00:16:14.273 --> 00:16:16.042 No matter how it is being used, 00:16:16.042 --> 00:16:22.148 what is being built is the architecture of oppression. 00:16:22.148 --> 00:16:25.451 And you might trust who is dealing with it, 00:16:25.451 --> 00:16:26.919 you might trust who runs it. 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:29.155 You might go, "You know, I don't care about Mark Zuckerberg." 00:16:29.155 --> 00:16:31.924 But someone else will have this data eventually. 00:16:31.924 --> 00:16:34.894 Some other country will have this data eventually. 00:16:34.894 --> 00:16:36.996 In your country, a different president 00:16:36.996 --> 00:16:38.831 will have control of this data eventually, 00:16:38.831 --> 00:16:43.069 and someone will abuse it. 00:16:43.069 --> 00:16:46.138 Now, could China use it for something interesting to them? 00:16:46.138 --> 00:16:49.108 Yes. And what happens when they abuse it? 00:16:49.108 --> 00:16:51.444 And I believe they already have. 00:16:51.444 --> 00:16:53.479 You know, they're they're running internment camps 00:16:53.479 --> 00:16:54.981 in China. 00:16:54.981 --> 00:16:58.217 And these practices, when they don't get pushback, 00:16:58.217 --> 00:17:00.319 when they don't get condemnation, 00:17:00.319 --> 00:17:01.821 when they don't face sanction, 00:17:01.821 --> 00:17:05.358 this will become normalized and it will spread. 00:17:05.358 --> 00:17:07.460 And we'll face them in Russia. 00:17:07.460 --> 00:17:08.995 We'll face them in Iran. 00:17:08.995 --> 00:17:10.329 And then we'll face them in Poland, 00:17:10.329 --> 00:17:11.430 we'll face them in Hungary, 00:17:11.430 --> 00:17:12.765 we'll face them throughout Europe. 00:17:12.765 --> 00:17:14.400 We will face them in the United States 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:16.936 because we will face them everywhere. 00:17:16.936 --> 00:17:19.472 ♪♪ 00:17:19.472 --> 00:17:21.173 -This is a pivotal moment. 00:17:21.173 --> 00:17:22.842 -It is. -And why is nobody 00:17:22.842 --> 00:17:26.078 talking about this? 00:17:26.078 --> 00:17:27.580 -Because we're scared. 00:17:31.651 --> 00:17:38.024 ♪♪ 00:17:38.024 --> 00:17:41.560 -We've talked about, this is, let's say, the first wave. 00:17:41.560 --> 00:17:46.499 And until there's a functioning vaccine, 00:17:46.499 --> 00:17:48.167 there's going to be more waves. 00:17:48.167 --> 00:17:50.403 There's going to be more pandemics. 00:17:50.403 --> 00:17:54.073 I mean, this is just the way it's going to go. 00:17:54.073 --> 00:17:57.843 So if there's going to be more waves of COVID-19, and in fact, 00:17:57.843 --> 00:18:01.080 more waves of other pandemics going forward, 00:18:01.080 --> 00:18:05.651 then theoretically there will be more information, 00:18:05.651 --> 00:18:09.922 more information collected, more information shared. 00:18:09.922 --> 00:18:12.491 This is the "new normal." 00:18:12.491 --> 00:18:15.261 This is just -- it's not going to get better. 00:18:15.261 --> 00:18:19.765 This is just it. This is a pivotal moment. 00:18:19.765 --> 00:18:21.000 -It is. -And why is nobody 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:22.168 talking about this? 00:18:24.570 --> 00:18:26.639 -Because we're scared. 00:18:26.639 --> 00:18:29.508 If we work together, if we think that how we can 00:18:29.508 --> 00:18:31.911 protect ourselves, our families, our communities, 00:18:31.911 --> 00:18:35.081 our hospitals, if we think about how we can work 00:18:35.081 --> 00:18:37.583 together internationally to overcome this, 00:18:37.583 --> 00:18:41.087 as our weeds peak in different places at different times, 00:18:41.087 --> 00:18:45.424 we cooperate, we can start to get this space 00:18:45.424 --> 00:18:48.995 to think not about addressing the symptom 00:18:48.995 --> 00:18:51.397 of our overcrowded and unequal world, 00:18:51.397 --> 00:18:56.302 which is this virus that has spread across borders instantly. 00:18:56.302 --> 00:18:57.870 When you look at what's happened, 00:18:57.870 --> 00:18:59.805 when we have this health crisis, 00:18:59.805 --> 00:19:02.975 and it very quickly morphed into an economic crisis 00:19:02.975 --> 00:19:07.480 and then very quickly became a financial crisis, 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:09.949 you see all the governments of the world leap into action. 00:19:09.949 --> 00:19:11.984 And it's interesting that you see the majority of this money 00:19:11.984 --> 00:19:15.421 go not to the public, not to hospitals, 00:19:15.421 --> 00:19:16.922 but to businesses, 00:19:16.922 --> 00:19:20.993 loans to the groups and corporations 00:19:20.993 --> 00:19:23.062 that actually created the systemic problems 00:19:23.062 --> 00:19:29.001 that were exacerbated by this sudden sharp decline. 00:19:29.001 --> 00:19:33.072 But we need to remember that this virus will pass, 00:19:33.072 --> 00:19:37.943 but the decisions that we make today in this atmosphere 00:19:37.943 --> 00:19:40.312 will last. 00:19:40.312 --> 00:19:41.747 We will have to live with them 00:19:41.747 --> 00:19:43.349 and our children will have to live with them. 00:19:43.349 --> 00:19:45.451 All of our posterity will. 00:19:45.451 --> 00:19:49.388 It's not just about America. It's not just about your city. 00:19:49.388 --> 00:19:51.924 It's about everywhere. 00:19:51.924 --> 00:19:55.361 Because these systems, if we do not change them, 00:19:55.361 --> 00:19:59.265 they're going to make decisions for us on an automated basis 00:19:59.265 --> 00:20:01.333 to determine who gets a job, 00:20:01.333 --> 00:20:03.936 who gets a home, and who does not. 00:20:07.673 --> 00:20:14.213 ♪♪ 00:20:14.213 --> 00:20:16.182 -So we seem to be heading 00:20:16.182 --> 00:20:18.617 into this uncharted territory. 00:20:18.617 --> 00:20:21.587 And I wanted to ask you, you know, step back, 00:20:21.587 --> 00:20:23.189 take some time. 00:20:23.189 --> 00:20:24.557 What should we be thinking about? 00:20:24.557 --> 00:20:27.526 What should we be concentrating on? 00:20:27.526 --> 00:20:31.764 -One of the things that strikes me is 00:20:31.764 --> 00:20:33.666 this sensation that this is, 00:20:33.666 --> 00:20:35.301 you know, a bolt out of the blue, 00:20:35.301 --> 00:20:37.703 it couldn't have been prevented, it couldn't have been resisted, 00:20:37.703 --> 00:20:41.807 it couldn't have been imagined that this would come to pass, 00:20:41.807 --> 00:20:43.943 this global pandemic. 00:20:43.943 --> 00:20:46.278 When you think about the average American, 00:20:46.278 --> 00:20:48.347 you know, they go to work every day. 00:20:48.347 --> 00:20:51.817 They spend ten hours at the office, in the car, 00:20:51.817 --> 00:20:55.087 away from their family, away from their home. 00:20:55.087 --> 00:20:58.991 And by the end of the day, they've got no space to think. 00:20:58.991 --> 00:21:02.161 And now all of us collectively at the same time 00:21:02.161 --> 00:21:06.899 has been forced into a global sabbatical all around the world, 00:21:06.899 --> 00:21:11.570 which is an extraordinarily rare event in history. 00:21:11.570 --> 00:21:14.807 We are at one of the only moments 00:21:14.807 --> 00:21:20.112 that will be in our lifetimes where the system is so stressed 00:21:20.112 --> 00:21:22.848 and so overextended and the leadership 00:21:22.848 --> 00:21:26.619 so clearly out of its league that we have the ability 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:29.288 to make not reformative changes, 00:21:29.288 --> 00:21:30.890 but revolutionary changes, 00:21:30.890 --> 00:21:33.792 that we can actually change the functioning of society, 00:21:33.792 --> 00:21:36.495 that we can actually change the structure of the system 00:21:36.495 --> 00:21:38.464 that controls and influences our lives -- 00:21:38.464 --> 00:21:39.899 the way that we are being monitored, 00:21:39.899 --> 00:21:41.433 the way that we're being tracked. 00:21:41.433 --> 00:21:45.337 Because these systems, if we do not change them, 00:21:45.337 --> 00:21:47.640 will not simply be used to monitor our health. 00:21:47.640 --> 00:21:51.677 They're going to make decisions for us on an automated basis 00:21:51.677 --> 00:21:55.080 to determine who gets a job, who goes to school, 00:21:55.080 --> 00:21:57.149 who gets a loan, who gets a home, 00:21:57.149 --> 00:21:59.018 and who does not. 00:21:59.018 --> 00:22:01.353 And we today are being asked 00:22:01.353 --> 00:22:04.156 in a moment of extraordinary fear, 00:22:04.156 --> 00:22:07.326 "What do we want these systems to look like?" 00:22:07.326 --> 00:22:09.662 And if we don't make that decision ourselves, 00:22:09.662 --> 00:22:12.631 it will be made for us. 00:22:12.631 --> 00:22:15.434 -Edward Snowden, thank you for your time today. 00:22:15.434 --> 00:22:18.070 -Thanks so much, Shane. 00:22:18.070 --> 00:22:22.541 ♪♪ 00:22:22.541 --> 00:22:27.046 ♪♪ 00:22:27.046 --> 00:22:32.117 ♪♪ 00:22:32.117 --> 00:22:38.824 ♪♪