Quite the opposite assessment of the Snowden case - the aftermath from 2013

Quite the opposite assessment of the Snowden case - the aftermath from 2013

In 2013, Edward Snowden, a contract employee of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), exposed secret surveillance programs such as PRISM, revealing that the government had accessed data from major tech companies such as Google and Facebook to collect domestic and international communications. This exposed the surveillance system expanded under the "war on terror" after 9/11 and symbolized the excesses of post-Cold War security policies. The government and intelligence agencies strongly objected, calling Snowden a "fraud" and a "pawn manipulated by the Kremlin" for "endangering national security. The circumstances of his defection to Russia via Hong Kong also evoked the afterimage of the Cold War. In Silicon Valley, on the other hand, the opposite view prevailed, with businesspeople and citizens outraged by the NSA's intrusion into their systems hailing him as a "whistleblower" and "hero of the anti-establishment movement. The founder of the gaming company Zynga went so far
as to say that he "should be pardoned and greeted with a confetti parade," an attitude that epitomized a tech culture that values freedom and transparency. This divergence reflects the deep fault lines between Washington and Silicon Valley and highlights the 21st century conflict over national security, individual liberty, government authority, and corporate responsibility. The incident sparked a national and international debate on the pros and cons of the surveillance state, and encouraged a trend toward tighter data protection regulations and privacy legislation in Europe.