Governments Are ‘Building the Architecture of Oppression’, Says Snowden

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former NSA analyst Edward Snowden gave an interview to Vice TV’s co-founder, Shane Smith, on the current Covid-19 pandemic in which he considered the methods and approach governments are taking to fight the pandemic.

Snowden begins by stating that this pandemic was not as unpredictable as it seems, noting that “there is nothing more foreseeable as a public health crisis in a world where we are just living on top of each other in crowded and polluted cities, than a pandemic”.

“And every academic, every researcher who’s looked at this knew this was coming. And in fact, even intelligence agencies, I can tell you firsthand, because they used to read the reports had been planning for pandemics,” Snowden said.

The former NSA analyst also admits to distrust of how governments are addressing the pandemic, pointing out that many are taking the opportunity to collect more data on their citizens.

“As authoritarianism spreads, as emergency laws proliferate, as we sacrifice our rights, we also sacrifice our capability to arrest the slide into a less liberal and less free world. Do you truly believe that when the first wave, this second wave, the 16th wave of the coronavirus is a long-forgotten memory, that these capabilities will not be kept? That these datasets will not be kept? No matter how it is being used, what’ is being built is the architecture of oppression,” he said.

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