An entire year has come full circle since Edward Snowden made shocking revelations to the world regarding the nature in which the American government conducts digital surveillance. Snowden shocked the world, leaving opinions torn in the cataclysmic post 9-11 global climate. Those who were indignant revered Snowden as a hero for mustering the courage to face the most powerful government in the world and leaking information detailing their nefarious and illegal surveillance of their own citizens as well as citizens from other nations. Others deemed Snowden a traitor to his nation in times of terrorism and heightened global conflict for lacerating wounds of vulnerability within American security and intelligence agencies. Whatever end of the binary spectrum one’s opinion falls on, we must concede that the whistleblower has transformed the face of the internet and our perception of it.

Snowden worked as a technical specialist for the CIA and is the source for arguably the greatest government information leak in history discounting wikileaks. Snowden first anonymously got in touch with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for ‘The Guardian’ towards the end of 2012. On the 6th of June 2013, Greenwald reported that the NSA (National Security Agency) conducted espionage on the citizens of the USA to obtain communications data for a three month period, authorized by a secret court order. On the 7th of June, ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Washington Post’ reported on a surveillance programme called “PRISM” that empowered the NSA to look into private emails, chats, search history giving the agency authority to look into the details of the users of mammoth corporations, like Facebook, Google and Yahoo! to name a few. What followed was a PR damage control campaign by the white house, as Barack Obama, the US president went on record to address the issue, stating that programs were overseen by Congress and Courts to “strike a balance” between privacy and security. By this time, global public outrage had reached a crescendo and a weary atmosphere of mistrust of the American government had permeated the collective consciousness of the American people.

On the 9th of June, Snowden’s name is revealed as the whistleblower. He is believed to be taking refuge in Hong Kong at the time. In the weeks and months that follow, American and European powers assure their citizens that intelligence agencies are functioning within the law; while Snowden contradicts these statements providing evidence to support the contrary, and further antagonises America, revealing that the NSA had been hacking computers in Mainland China and Hong Kong for years. These events catalyzed global protest demonstrations in the following months, propelling global awareness of the issue exponentially. Snowden expressed that he would progressively release a myriad of illegal activities conducted by the NSA over time to avoid overwhelming governments and citizens. From Hong Kong, Snowden was seeking asylum in Iceland, but with a growing threat of extradition to the US, he finally took asylum in Russia, landing in Moscow on June 23rd 2013. Snowden was charged with theft of government property, and two counts of violating the U.S.’ 1917 Espionage Act through unauthorized communication of national defense information and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person” by United States prosecutors on June 14th. Each charge carries a maximum possible prison term of 10 years. Undeterred, Snowden continued with his disclosures, leaking at least 15,000 Australian intelligence files according Australian officials; At least 58,000 British intelligence files, according to British officials; and About 1.7 million U.S. intelligence files, according to U.S. officials.

It is imperative to realize that an imperial attitude and colonization of the internet must be met with resistance to preserve the integrity of free speech and anonymity that the internet guarantees and facilitates. Failing to preserve the free nature of the internet would result in the standardization and comodification of communication and conversation. A deadly form of censorship that inhibits our ability to use technology as a tool to question authority and communicate freely. A year since Snowden’s first revelation, a campaign is brewing to raise awareness of how individuals can be empowered to protect themselves from state sponsored espionage and re secure the conduits of the internet as a network for uninhibited interaction. The campaign is named ‘Reset the Net’ and is garnering unprecedented momentum for the cause. The campaign allows internet users, developers, website owners and anyone who uses the internet in any way shape or form; access to tools to protect themselves and others from the prying eyes of the NSA and other agencies like it. It can be ubiquitously discerned that granting governments’ access to private information has the potential to lead to a totalitarian, Orwellian nightmare. With a vast strength in numbers, this movement has the potential to bring the world together like never before and spread the message that we do not stand for underhanded espionage by our own governments.

The movement to democratize the internet is a cog in the machine rapidly surging with awareness that is approaching singularity as we speak. The idea is to ride the spiral of evolution or be at the risk of getting left behind. With technology at the brink of infinity, it is common to see those resistant to the metamorphosis being rejected and eventually discarded, left clinging to the cocoon, unable to survive the elements. With value, virtue, quality and freedom subject to emphasis for evolution, it is obligatory that those comfortable in archaic schemes “better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a changing”.

You can join the movement here: https://www.resetthenet.org/