Citizenfour Essay

This assignment was to watch a youtube documentary on Edward Snowden and then write about what happened when Snowden released all the NSA documents. Along with trying to answer the question of if Edward Snowden was a hero or a criminal?

Originally Written: September 2024

In 2013 Edward Snowden leaked thousands of NSA documents that detailed how the government was spying on Americans and other countries through online data. Snowden’s actions are very controversial, with people saying that the release of information was against America. Others argue this and say that Snowden was a whistleblower and a hero. Was Snowden right for releasing all this information?

Edward Snowden was an employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, and worked as a contracted employee of the National Security Agency for four years before coming forward with his concerns. In 2013, Snowden made the decision to leak classified information through journalists Barton Gellman, and Glen Greenwald along with filmmaker Laura Poitras (Greenwald et al., 2013).

For his motives behind releasing this information Snowden stated that, “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them… I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building” (Greenwald et al., 2013).

The key revelations made by Snowden from this release was the lack of privacy online. He revealed the scale of government surveillance that was going on behind the scenes. Including the type of government surveillance programs that were amassing all this data on all American citizens, and the world.  The focus was on “metadata”, and the programs used to get the data that was being collected on everyone. 

Metadata is “basic information on who has been contacting whom, without detailing the content” (MacAskill et al., 2018). The two main programs that the NSA was getting this data from were Tempora and PRISM.  PRISM was a program that directly took data from major online Service Providers such as: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple (Greenwald & MacAskill, 2013).

Tempora was another program taking data, this time from the internet fiber cables from around the world. The NSA worked with British Intelligence GCHQ to set up the Tempora program, where they could store the information from the internet fiber cables up to three days, and up to thirty days for metadata (MacAskill et al., 2018).

The implications theses document leaks had for National Security was mainly through the damaging of the peoples trust in their government, a reduction in what the government was now able to surveil with more laws and regulations coming into effect after these documents were released.  Finally, these leaks harmed the United States relations with other countries that they had been spying and amassing data on.

Through the framework of deontology, we can see if Edward Snowden’s actions were moral. Deontology can be defined as “…the moral philosophy that judges an act as moral or good based on the intentions of the individual committing the act and the duties the person is obligated to uphold” (Comunale et al., 2023).When being interviewed by the journalists, Edward Snowden claimed that his intentions for releasing this information was, “I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building” (Greenwald et al., 2013). Snowden had a duty to his conscience, or to his morals, to inform the public about the violations to their privacy. One could also argue that he had a duty as a citizen of the United States to let other citizen know about these violations to their constitutional rights.

However, Snowden was also a contract employee to the NSA, and he had an obligation as an employee of that agency to uphold that secrecy. Or, to go through the proper channels with his concerns.  It is also arguable that as a citizen of the United States that he had the duty to uphold matter of national security instead of putting that at risk by leaking government secrets to the public.

By leaking this information Edward Snowden ended up losing a lot. He ended up being charged with Espionage by the United States and lost his ability to be on U.S. soil without being arrested and tried for his crimes. This implies that Snowden didn’t make this choice to leak the documents out of self-interest as he ended up losing more than he gained. By staying quiet Snowden could have continued at a well-paying job and retained his ability to be with friends and family (Greenwald et al., 2013).

We can also look through the framework of utilitarianism to see if Edward Snowden was morally right to release this information to the public. Utilitarianism “…promotes "the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people”” (Tardi, 2023).

Edward Snowden made the choice to release information to the public because he believed that was the “greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people”.  As he believed that releasing this information was in the best interest of the American public.

            Edwards Snowden released thousands of top-secret documents to the public in a large leak. This leak could be considered treasonous as it threatened national security. Edward Snowden did not go through the proper whistleblower channels to leak this information. Instead, he downloaded information from the NSA servers, and then gave that information to three journalists and let them make the calls on what to release.

            However, the National Whistleblower Center states that, “at the time Snowden blew the whistle, U.S. law provided little to no whistleblower protection for employees and contractors of national security agencies, who are not covered by standard federal employee whistleblower protection laws” (Younger, 2020).  So, Edward Snowden’s actions could still be seen as those of a whistleblower calling out the government for going too far with their violations of American privacy.

These leaks also prompted the more transparency from the NSA and American government on their surveillance measures, along with more laws and regulations to what the government can access from regular citizens. The fact that these leaks prompted such an important change implies the need for there to have been a whistleblower like Snowden.

            Edward Snowden was morally right to release this information to the public through the framework of deontology, as he was responding to a sense of moral duty or obligation to release this information to the public. He was also morally right to release this information to the public through the framework of utilitarianism, as he was choosing to release this information for the greater good of the public.

            Legally, I think that Edward Snowden can be seen as a whistleblower instead of a traitor. I think that he was trying to inform the American public about what was going on in the government that violated their privacy.

In conclusion, Snowden was a whistleblower trying to keep the government accountable for their actions. Through the framework of utilitarianism and deontology he was morally right to release this information to the American public. Snowden made the hard choice to share this information with the public and was able to help bring awareness to people’s privacy online and the data being collected on everyone.

References:

Comunale, J., Keefe, J., & Chapel, L. (2023). Deontology: Definition & Examples. Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/deontology-definition-theory-ethics-examples.html#:~:text=Deontology%2C%20in%20simple%20words%2C%20is,person%20is%20obligated%20to%20uphold.

Greenwald, G., & MacAskill, E. (2013, June 7). NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

Greenwald, G., MacAskill, E., & Poitras, L. (2013, June 11). Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

MacAskill, E., Borger, J., Hopkins, N., Davies, N., & Ball, J. (2018, March 6). GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world’s communications. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communications-nsa

MacAskill, E., Dance, G., Cage, F., Chen, G., & Popovich, N. (2014, March 23). NSA files decoded: Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations explained. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/2

Smith, D. (2023, June 7). What’s really changed 10 years after the Snowden revelations? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/07/edward-snowden-10-years-surveillance-revelations

Tardi, C. (2023, April 27). Utilitarianism Defined. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/utilitarianism.asp#toc-what-is-utilitarianism

The Ethics Centre. (2016, February 18). Ethics Explainer: What is Deontology? The Ethics Centre. https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-deontology/

Younger, N. (2020, November 19). The case of Edward Snowden. National Whistleblower Center. https://www.whistleblowers.org/news/the-case-of-edward-snowden/