Thousands of people took to the streets of Berlin, Germany on Saturday to protest against NSA surveillance activities and fight for their right to privacy.
Demonstrators carried banners which read, “Stop spying on
us,” along with the phrases “NSA killed by internet”
and “Thanks to PRISM the government finally knows what the
people want.” The event was organized under the slogan
“Freedom Rather Than Fear.”
"Intelligence agencies like the NSA shamelessly spy on
telephone conversations and Internet connections worldwide [and]
our government, one of whose key roles is the protection from
harm, sends off soothing explanations," Kai-Uwe Steffens from
the German Working Group on Data Retention said, as quoted by
AFP. Steffens was one of the speakers on stage at the
rally.
The protest was put on by Germany’s Green party, along with the
Left and Pirate parties. The event hosts claimed the rally was
attended by around 20,000 people. However, police declined to
confirm the numbers, only stating that their “tally differs
from that of the organizers.”
“The Europeans have been outraged by the amount of their
personal details that have not only being obtained through spying
scandal, but also just handed over [to the US intelligence] by
certain companies,” RT’s Peter Oliver reported from
Berlin.
Documents leaked by
whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed close cooperation between
the NSA and internet giants such as Facebook and
Google.
“Our data should be protected and we should have access to
information, so we know what’s going on,” one of the
protesters told RT. “At this moment, everything is strictly
confidential and we have no way to defend ourselves from
surveillance and today we’d like to show that we will not accept
this.”
On Thursday, German Justice Minister Sabine
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger raised the possibility of new,
tangible measures to punish corporations which participate in
American spying activities.
She called for the creation of EU-wide rules to regulate the
protection of information, adding that "United States
companies that don't abide by these standards should be denied
doing business in the European market."
When Snowden’s leaks were first revealed, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel claimed that she learned of the US surveillance
programs through press reports. However, it later came to light
that Germany’s BND intelligence service sends “massive
amounts” of intercepts to the US and UK daily.
Although government spying is anything but new, Snowden’s
revelations showcase the large scope of modern day surveillance
programs, said Gavin MacFadyen, director of the Center for
Investigative Journalism at London’s City University.
“It’s been going on for a long time. People forget that in the
70s, a spy system called Echelon was uncovered...what was
different about that spying system and the present one is the
sheer extent of it,” MacFadyen told RT.
“The major security companies and social networking companies
have opened their effective backdoors to the NSA. Even commercial
confidentiality as an area of secrecy has been violated
completely by this hovering up of everything. So I think people
are alarmed as they realize it will affect them personally – it’s
not just political opponent. But a possibility of blackmail is
enormous, some indecent federal employee can easily sift this
material, find something terribly damaging, and then use it for
personal gain or political gain,” he continued.