[Peace-discuss] World Young Westerners Support Snowden, Study Finds

[David Johnson]

World Young Westerners Support Snowden, Study Finds

 

As Western nations ramp up mass surveillance programs, their younger
generations are largely supportive of U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Young Westerners overwhelming support U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden,
according to a study released Wednesday. Conducted in ten Western nations,
the study found people born between the 1980s and 2000 familiar with Snowden
generally don't believe his disclosures harmed national security, but do
think they should lead to more privacy rights. Snowden was responsible for
leaking documents from the U.S. National Security Agency in 2013 that
revealed the agency was engaging in the bulk collection of
telecommunications data both within the United States and abroad. Young
Italians had the most favorable views of Snowden, with 86 percent of survey
participants expressing positive views of the whistleblower. Snowden was
least supported in his home country of the United States, where 56 percent
of youths saw him in a positive light. The study was commissioned by the
American Civil Liberties Union, which pointed out that in many countries
surveyed, governments are actively expanding secretive mass surveillance
programs. "The parliaments of Canada, France, and the Netherlands are
considering expansive surveillance powers similar to those of the USA
Patriot Act, and Australia recently enacted such a law," the ACLU stated. In
March, Australia's two major political parties - Labor and the Coalition -
joined forces to ram a mandatory data retention law through parliament. The
law forces telecommunications providers to store customer phone and internet
records for at least two years, and hand over data to security agencies on
request. RELATED: UK Intelligence Reads Thousands of Private Emails Everyday
Yet broad youth support for Snowden means a fierce fight to roll back mass
surveillance is "inevitable," according to the ACLU executive director
Anthony Romero. "(Millenials) are a generation of digital natives who don't
want government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their
phone calls," Romero stated. He continued, "Old folks just don't get it. The
new generation will fix it if we don't." RELATED: INTERVIEW: An 'Obvious and
Conspicuous' Injustice, says Assange

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y-Finds-20150422-0013.html>
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