Last week, a bright idealistic young man named Edward Snowden almost single-handedly opened the lid on the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM program, a program which marks the bleakest moment yet in the history of the Internet due to its scope, exact country of origin and implications.

[By Gou Ben/China.org.cn]

In terms of scope, major transnational service providers ranging from Google to Apple are involved in allowing the NSA to access their customers' data for the purposes of "surveillance." Nearly all types of services ranging from email to VoIP have come within the program's scope and it originates in a country which dominates the world's Internet resources – a fact which is acknowledged in the information leaked by Snowden clearly states: "Much of the world's communications flow through the U.S." and the information is accessible. The case indicates that through outsourcing and contracting, Big Brother is breaching the fundamental rights of citizens by getting unfettered access to their most personal communications.

As the case unfolds, there are many things to worry about. How do we make sense of the fact that the market and the state colluded in the abuse of private information via what represents the backbone of many modern day infrastructures? How do we rationalize the character of Snowden and his fellow whistleblowers? How do we understand the one-sided cyber attack accusations the U.S. has poured upon China in the past few months? To what degree have foreign users of these Internet services fallen victim to this project? Among all these suspicions, let us clarify two types of American personality.

First of all, Snowden's case offers us a rare chance to reexamine the integrity of American politicians and the management of American-dominant Internet companies, and it appears that while many of these individuals verbally attack other nations and people in the name of freedom and democracy, they ignore America's worsening internal situation. In an eloquent speech on Internet freedom, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if Internet companies can't act as "responsible stewards of their own personal information," then they would lose customers and their survival would be threatened. In the same speech, she also urged U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance.

Clinton was certainly under the impression that her own government was above reproach on these matters, when every piece of evidence, whether in hindsight or not, suggests the opposite. We must also remember that Clinton's Internet freedom speech was addressing Google's grand withdrawal from China; so, following the logical thread of her speech, it is surely now time for Google to take responsibility for leaking data and information to the NSA and withdraw from the U.S. market. David Drummond, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer, justified Google's withdrawal from China by citing state "surveillance" and the "fact" that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists were being "routinely accessed by third parties". If Google wants to be consistent with its past pronouncements, the PRISM program gives the Internet giant much more cause for action.

Related

• NSA's Prism operation: How do we balance security and privacy?
• Assange: Snowden 'a hero to all humanity'
• Edward Snowden says US hacks China

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